Endeavour NCC 194: The Daedalus Incident
by LeBiff
Summary: The Starship Daedalus has disappeared along the Klingon border. Captain William Drake and the Starship Endeavour have been sent to find the missing ship, and punish whoever took it.
1. Chapter 1

**ENDEAVOUR NCC-194**

_The Daedalus Incident_

Chapter One 

_October 30, 2164_

Captain William Drake was awoken by the sound of the comm whistle piercing the silence of his quarters. Usually, nothing was guaranteed to put the captain in a bad mood quite so fast as being dragged out of bed at crazy hours of the night, but this morning he wasn't complaining. He had been released from a very disturbing dream, in which a maliciously grinning Alex had been chasing him through the bloodstained corridors of the _Endeavour_. Weird. Alex Nain had never featured in his dreams before, in any manner, and his friend wasn't like the person he had dreamed about. She wasn't a saint, she was often temperamental and violent, but dream-Alex had been downright evil.

He was glad to be awake, and back in a sane world.

"Captain," the clearly enunciated voice of Comm Officer Marcus Sturnn came from the speakers. "We have a hail for you from Starfleet Command. Real-time transmission, sir."

That caught the captain's attention. This far into deep space, real-time communications were impossible without the use of very powerful subspace amplifiers; an expensive thing. Communiqués between the admiralty and the ships of the fleet were sent as recorded messages, unless the orders were particularly vital or sensitive.

The kind of orders that _Endeavour_ had never received.

He wrapped a dressing gown around himself and sat at his simple metal desk. The computer screen glowed with the default screen of the Federation seal. As usual, Drake contemplated replacing it with the ship's mission crest, or the Starfleet emblem, or a nice picture of home, or maybe a pretty starscape, like the one they had spent most of last month staring at while the science team did their scanning. He wasn't a supporter of the United Federation of Planets. It was, in his opinion, a doomed idea.

He pressed the comm toggle on the desk and instructed, "Pipe it down here."

"Aye, sir."

It took a moment for Sturnn to relay the signal, and then the square headed Admiral Duncan Rose appeared on the captain's monitor, looking more fatigued than Drake had seen him in years. He was surprised to see it, and surprised to see Rose at all. He reported to Admiral McCaffrey on Starbase Two, and he could tell that this was more than a casual call. What did Rose want with him?

"Admiral."

"Captain. Sorry to wake you at this hour, but we have a serious situation. The _Daedalus_ has disappeared."

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"Disappeared?" Repeated Alex Nain.

The senior staff were gathered in the briefing room, dragged from their beds by the anxious captain. It was less than an hour since he had finished receiving his briefing from Admiral Rose, and already the _Endeavour_ was tearing through subspace towards the Klingon border. Drake had already thoroughly briefed Commander Tholiar, and the Andorian woman was holding the centre chair in his absence, while he brought the rest of the officers up to speed.

"Disappeared," Drake told her again. "Starfleet lost all contact with the ship approximately fourteen hours ago. Even her IFF beacon's gone silent. Tracking and Communication has made several attempts to re-establish contact, but either nothing's got through or they're unable to respond. Starfleet has ordered us to investigate."

"Weren't we in the middle of a very important nebula survey?"

"This is no time for jokes."

Alex shrugged. "We're in deep space. Ships go missing all the time. The _Shenandoah_ fell off the map last month."

"That's true," admitted Drake. "But it's the location and the timing of _Daedalus_' disappearance that has got Starfleet worried. Captain Matsura was on a routine patrol of the Klingon border when we lost contact."

Now Alex understood the seriousness of the situation. "Does Starfleet think the Klingons are responsible?"

"They're not ruling it out." The officers took that as a diplomatic way of saying 'yes'.

"_Maybe they're not,"_ Kana's voice whispered in her head, _"but you should be. Klingons are a warrior people. If they had destroyed your little toy ship they would be loudly trumpeting it across the galaxy."_

"_They're not,"_ Alex mentally finished, _"so someone else took _Daedalus_."_

Lieutenant Brok, the only Bolian aboard the ship, decided to speak before Alex could open her mouth again. He had served with the human long enough to know to get his queries in during her pauses for breath. "What's our assignment?"

"We're rendezvousing with the _Helios, Icarus_, _Patton_ and _Grant_ at our outpost on VX-41. From there, we're to proceed to the last known location of the _Daedalus_ and begin our search."

"Three Daedalus-class ships and a pair of Phoboses?" Alex's thin red eyebrows knit above her equally fiery eyes. "Starfleet is worried, isn't it?"

"Show of force," said Drake. "Whether the Klingons are responsible or not, we want to show them that the loss of the _Daedalus_ doesn't weaken Starfleet. We won't let them take advantage of the situation."

"And if they did do it, we're gonna blow up a few of their ships in retaliation?"

"Something like that," the captain agreed.

"I like the idea of attacking the Klingons," Brok said cautiously, "but we're not in good shape for battle. _Endeavour_'s been on scientific duty from the day we launched. We're carrying a hundred science personnel, and we've got more probes in the torpedo bay than torpedoes."

Captain Drake had raised this point with the admiral, and he was pleased to reassure his tactical officer, "All non-Starfleet science personnel are being offloaded at VX-41."

"Sarn too?" Asked Alex, hoping that the answer would be no.

"Yes."

Alex swore and didn't care who heard. The Vulcan exchange officer was a good friend of hers. She didn't like the idea of leaving her behind on an outpost while they went into action. That's what she told herself, anyway. The truth was simpler: she didn't want to be without her friend.

Drake ignored his helmsman's anger and continued: "Our torpedo supplies are being restocked. We're taking on additional engineers, security officers, and an SMC squad. Starfleet engineers are waiting to overhaul our shield grid in preparation for heavy combat."

Brok nodded. "That's what I like to hear."

"_Me too."_

Alex flicked an angry look over her shoulder, not caring if anyone saw and thought her strange. _"Anything that makes you happy I know is bad news."_ Out loud, she added, "How long will that overhaul take?"

"A couple of days with our people assisting in the work. But I needn't remind you all," Drake warned, "that even fitted for combat, a Daedalus-class ship isn't a match for a Klingon dreadnought. Our intelligence puts at least two of those behemoths in the sector around VX-41."

The officers nodded solemnly. The Klingons might not be the brightest race in the galaxy, but they had resources aplenty and they built powerful warships. It was why the Federation had worked so hard to maintain the fragile peace with its neighbour. Any war with the Klingons would devastate half the galaxy, leaving billions dead and the victor (whichever side that may be) decimated. The Federation especially couldn't afford another conflict, so soon after the Romulan War.

This meant that even if the Klingons had destroyed the _Daedalus_, Drake would have to limit his response to try and avoid a war.

"Remember, at this juncture this is a search and rescue mission, and it remains so until we have definite proof that the _Daedalus_ has been destroyed. I think that's all for now. Dismissed."

The officers filed out of the briefing room one by one, until just two remained. Alex lounged back in her chair, her feet up on the smooth black table, watching her friend intently. He poured himself a mug of coffee from the pot in the middle of the table and told her gently, "Dismissed generally means leave, Alex."

"That's in that rule book, right? I really should read that one day."

"Probably," he agreed, taking a seat opposite her. "Okay, what's on your mind?"

"Just an idle curiosity," she promised. "McCaffrey hates us, and always has. He'd have us delivering post around the quadrant, if the FPS wouldn't lynch him for it. So why'd he give us this important assignment?"

"He didn't." Drake swigged his lukewarm coffee.

"Some elaboration on that statement would be nice."

"Admiral Rose gave us the job."

She hunted through her memories, but couldn't recall ever having heard of an admiral by that name before. Silently, she asked, _"Any idea who that is?"_

"_Not a one."_

"Who…?"

"Rose is a friend. He was our admiral when Matsura and I were aboard _Kyoto_. Along with McCaffrey."

"Ah," she understood. "You're the only man he trusts with this job."

"Something like that, perhaps."

Alex remembered Drake telling her about Hiro Matsura, the current captain of _Daedalus_. She had rarely heard him talk so affectionately about anyone, and it concerned her. "Don't take this the wrong way, Will, but I wonder if you're the right man for this. Hiro's a friend of yours."

"You're worried I won't be able to act professionally; that my personal feelings might cloud my judgement."

She just shrugged. He knew what her concerns were; there was no need for her to spell them out.

"This isn't the first time I've been in this situation, Alex. And I've got you to keep an eye out for me, haven't I?" He smiled affectionately.

"_He trusts you to be the sensible one? He's doomed!"_

Alex scratched the back of her head, looking uncertain. "You know, I think you've got a point."

"Pardon?"

Did I say that out loud? She thought urgently. Damn, I think I did! Idiot! She mentally kicked herself, and hastily blurted, "Oh? I was just thinking, maybe I'm not the best choice for the responsible one. Shouldn't Tholiar be keeping an eye out for you? Isn't that the XO's job?"

"Tholiar doesn't know me as well as you do," he told her reasonably.

"Yeah…"

"What's up, Alex?"

She shuffled in her chair, uncomfortably, like a schoolgirl asked to explain her actions to the teacher. "I hate responsibility. You know that."

"I know that. That's why you turned down Nwabudike's offer, isn't it?"

Nwabudike Lal, Drake's friend and captain of the _Intrepid_, was going to have to replace his first officer at the beginning of the next year, and he had offered the position to Alex.

"I'm still considering it," she replied, a little coldly.

Drake was surprised. Although he agreed with Nwabudike that Alex had the brains and the ability to be a first officer, he could never imagine her in the position. She honestly hated responsibility and wasn't good at delegating. She did not believe that anyone could do a job as well as she could.

"What's really up?"

"Just worried, that's all."

Drake laughed. "You think I wasn't worried when you decided to take on the whole Orion Syndicate? I'll tell you what you told me: trust me. I won't do anything crazy."

"_He probably won't,"_ Kana agreed. _"That's really more your forte."_

"_You're being really supportive today, aren't you?"_

"_Try to be."_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two 

"Anything?"

Maximillion Walker lifted his head from the viewer and rubbed his tired eyes. Four hours of constant, highly detailed scanning of space had left him exhausted, defeated, and irritable. "Stuff all. Lots of space dust and some micro-meteors; no starship, no debris, no subspace or ion trails. Nothing interesting."

"Perhaps one of the other ships has found something," Navigation Officer Cartwright suggested hopefully, if not very optimistically.

"They'd have reported it if they had," said Brok, dismissing the thought.

That wasn't what Drake had wanted to hear. He sighed and sunk deeper into his chair. His lower back was starting to hurt from four hours of uninterrupted sitting. "Take us to the next scan point. Prepare for another sensor sweep."

Cartwright touched a button on his console, relaying course information to Alex's helm console. She fired up the impulse engines and the ship began its slow glide across the night.

"I've reached my limit," Maximillion said in no uncertain terms. He pushed himself to his feet and stretched. "Pini, take over here."

"Lieutenant…"

"Captain, my eyes are so badly strained I can barely see. I need a break. Twenty minutes."

"I can handle it, sir," Pini promised. She was the youngest crewman on the ship, unseasoned, and she had made more than a few mistakes since she had come aboard. She was intelligent, and Starfleet-trained, but her naivety weakened her. Walker and his number two, Carth Green, had wanted to leave her behind on VX-41 with Sarn and the other civilians.

Drake looked doubtful about the wisdom of leaving Pini in charge of the science console at such an important time. Maximillion saw the captain's doubt, and spoke up in support of her. "She'll be fine, sir. Anyway, the computer's programmed to flag up any contacts that match standard Starfleet hull materials. They'll appear on Brok's and Cartwright's panels as well."

"Very well. Get yourself some coffee."

Alex pivoted her seat around to face the captain. Her boredom threshold was notoriously low, and she had lost patience a long time ago. Her red eyes were frigid, a sure sign that she was fast running out of temper. "This might go faster if we sent out the shuttles. And you know how much I hate those things."

"Shuttle sensors are very basic," said Pini, without looking up from her sensor visor. Alex thought the young woman looked kind of cute with her face highlighted blue in the visor's glow. "They don't have nearly the resolution of our arrays."

"Yeah, but we can cover a lot more space with the shuttles flying. And all they have to do is scan for hull metals – duranium composites and that stuff. They can flag anything they find for a detailed scan by one of the starships."

Drake smiled at her, "Are you volunteering, Alex?"

"No chance in hell, Will," she assured him. "But I've got a list of people who've pissed me off lately…erm…pilots who've been inactive for too long and could really do with getting off the ship for a while."

He laughed. "Nice try, Alex."

"Thought I'd give it a shot." She tapped a series of commands into her console, and the impulse engines fired again, killing the starship's momentum. "We're in position."

"Beginning scan."

It seemed to take forever for the results to come in, and when they did Drake could tell that they weren't what he wanted from Pini's complete lack of reaction. If she had found anything, even a scrap of the _Daedalus_' paint, she would have been openly ecstatic.

"Nothing?"

"No, sir."

Drake was beginning to suspect that there was nothing to find. They had been at this for hours, all five ships combing the region where the _Daedalus_ had disappeared, and so far not one of them had found anything to indicate the ship's location, or its fate. Hiro Matsura, his ship and crew, had simply fallen off the map.

Without needing to be prompted, Cartwright pressed a toggle. "Nav point relayed."

"Firing impulse engines."

"_This is mind-numbing,"_ opined Kana. She was draping her immaterial body across the helm-navigation desk, lying on her side so that she could stare at Alex and her host couldn't help seeing how bored she felt. _"I thought scanning dust clouds was tedious, but this is a whole new league. There's not even anything to see!"_

That was true. The _Daedalus_ had disappeared in a stretch of open space, far from any solar system or spatial phenomena. All the view screen had to show was deep, dark space and a smattering of alien stars. The view had got boring almost as soon as it had appeared.

"_Unless you've got any helpful suggestions to make,"_ Alex said, without lifting her eyes from her instruments, _"bugger off."_

"_So tetchy."_

"_I'm as bored as you are. Complaining about it isn't going to get us anywhere. Now, if you could offer some suggestions about what happened to the ship, something that could speed this process along, I'd happily listen to you."_

"_It's times like these that I think I chose the wrong host."_

"_Like anyone else would have you."_

Kana looked peeved. _"Now you're just being rude."_

It made her feel better. Alex decelerated the ship to a relative stop and announced, "We're in position."

"Beginning scan," chimed Pini.

Again, their search was fruitless, as it was at the next four points. Walker returned to the bridge and took over from Pini, but he could find nothing that the young woman had missed. Yeoman Birch visited the bridge a few minutes later, bringing coffee that was gratefully accepted by all, and the ship proceeded to yet another search point.

"I'm starting to miss Sarn," Maximillion said a while later, as he took another break for his aching eyes.

Drake had never expected to hear that. "Why?"

His science officer had butted heads with the Vulcan scientist ever since she had come aboard. He had thrown a small party to celebrate her leaving.

"She was arrogant and stuck up, but she could sit at a console all day without suffering. Just the person we need right now."

Pini agreed with that. She was starting to feel a twitch in her spine from bending over the viewer so long, and the screen's glow was making her eyes burn. She was also feeling demoralised. Hours and hours of scanning, and what did they have to show for it? Less than nothing.

A light flashed on Sturnn's console, although it took the very bored communications officer a moment or two to notice. "Captain, we're receiving an incoming communiqué from the _Patton_."

"On screen."

Adis Mauva appeared on the screen. The Rigelian captain nodded a polite greeting to Drake, and began, "Captain, we have detected the remains of a warp trail. It is several days old and badly decayed. We can't get much information from it."

"Understood. Thank you, Captain. We'll converge on your location. With all ships working together, we might be able to learn more."

"We are of one mind. We await you, _Endeavour_. _Patton_ out."

Drake had to work to keep the smile from his face. At last, a lead! "Ensign, plot course to the _Patton_; Alex, full impulse."

"With pleasure," she replied, not bothering to suppress her grin.

"_About bloody time,"_ grumbled Kana.

The _Endeavour_ was the last ship to reach the _Patton_, and the others had already begun to run detailed scans. The _Icarus_ had one of the best science officers in the fleet, and before Walker could even tune his instruments, she had pieced together the situation.

"There are four separate warp trails; three of them belonging to no ships I recognise," she told the taskforce. "The fourth is the _Daedalus_."

Alex didn't like what she was hearing. "If the ship's warp capable, why aren't they responding to Starfleet's signals?"

"Comm system damaged?" Offered Pini optimistically.

"_That sound likely to you?"_

Drake was not an optimistic man. "She's been captured."

Captain Alan Swift, _U.S.S. Helios_, appeared on the screen. Older than Drake, his black hair flaked with grey and the left side of his face badly burnt – the result of a particularly fierce battle of the Romulan War – he would have been the senior captain of the taskforce, if Rose hadn't given that honour to Drake. He resented being sidelined, but was determined to do his duty. "Agreed. Search and recovery?"

"You read my mind, Captain. All ships, form on us. We're going after the _Daedalus_."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three 

Captain Kem'Tok watched the Starfleet ships jump to warp. He turned his throne-like command chair so that he could see his tactical advisor, a man who nearly matched Kem'Tok's impressive girth, and thusly found it difficult to stand comfortably behind his console. The captain felt no sympathy for him. There was a time for a Klingon to grow fat, and that was when he had already amassed great honour, and now commanded warriors to do his fighting for him. The tactician had not reached that point in life yet, and Kem'Tok doubted that he ever would.

"Tactician. Explain their actions!"

Ragh spoke as he would to a child. He had never thought much of Kem'Tok's tactical sense, and made no effort to disguise how he felt. "Obviously, they have found a way to track their lost starship. They are going to recover it."

"What makes it so obvious?"

"Their course takes them away from Federation space; out of their explored region. They are flying at full warp. They would not be rushing into the unknown without purpose."

Kem'Tok disagreed. "They are Federation. They are fools! Who knows why they do what they do?"

"Those of us who understand tactics do."

The bridge crew were utterly silent. Such a direct challenge could not go unanswered. Kem'Tok hauled himself out of his chair, dagger in hand, and advanced on Ragh. The younger, ever-so-slightly lighter Klingon drew his blade in response. The rest of the bridge crew looked on, judging who was most likely to win this fight.

But it was not to be.

"Be thankful that you are still useful to me," hissed Kem'Tok. "But there will come a day when that is no longer true."

Ragh bit back whatever he might have wanted to say to that. He wasn't as confident about fighting the captain with knives as he was with words.

Kem'Tok dropped his massive girth back into his command chair, which groaned audibly beneath him. "Pursuit course. Keep us outside of their scanning range. We will let them lead us to the missing ships, and then we will take them back!"

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The Commissar looked out across the shipyard. A dozen starships of various different classes and designs sat in berths, flexible umbilicals providing engineers with easy access to the ships, and power conduits to run their systems – the starships' own internal power cores had been deactivated or removed so that they could be studied and duplicated. Impressive technology throughout those craft. Far in advance of anything the people of his world had developed on their own.

But why would they need to do their own research, develop their own technologies? There were plenty of races out there more than willing to do the hard work. All they had to do was take a few samples home, pull them apart, find out how they worked, and duplicate them. It was much easier than inventing the technology from scratch. Faster and cheaper, too.

Their latest acquisition held his attention at the moment. A beautiful piece of shipbuilding, he was impressed. It was a very different breed to the low-slung battle cruisers they had captured recently; this ship had a spherical forward section and a tubular engineering hull, above which a pair of glowing warp nacelles were held by pylons. The engineers had already been over every inch of the craft and found advanced sensor and shield technologies, as well as improved impulse and warp engines. The weapons weren't a patch on what they had dug out of other craft. Obviously these people weren't warriors. It would make it easier to keep hold of their captive ship, if they ever came looking for it.

A crewman approached, carrying a data slate. The Commissar caught his reflection in the windowpane and turned. He could see the report title on the data slate, and opened with a pre-emptive, "The prisoners?"

"The last group arrived at the detention facility."

"Good."

He accepted the slate and dismissed the crewman. None of the prisoners had had an 'accident' en route, he was pleased to see. They still might need those crewmen to help them understand the _Daedalus_ technology. Until his people had stripped that ship of its secrets, their lives were valuable.

Central Command would be very pleased with his work, as soon as he handed them the _Daedalus_' secrets on a plate. Those sensor systems would improve their tracking network, allowing them to monitor their enemies more easily, and to find other treasures for the taking; with force fields wrapped around their ships, they would be able to stay in battle longer, and those enhanced warp drives would let their fleets reach further, faster. The Vyar Territories would grow and grow, unstoppably!

He was greatly displeased when a lieutenant spoilt this happy moment. "Sir. We have five ships on approach vector. Their designs are reminiscent of the _Daedalus_."

"Defensive alert. Launch the squadron. Drive those ships off."

"As you wish it, Commissar." The lieutenant bowed and went to relay the Commissar's orders.

The defence squadron would be able to hold off a small clutch of Daedalus-class ships. After all, the fighters were equipped with the very best weapon technologies the Vyar had gathered. The Daedalus ships would be outnumbered, outgunned, swarmed and destroyed.

He hoped that they might be able to capture one or more of the vessels. When you were experimenting on alien technology, it never hurt to have a few replacement parts, in case you broke something.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four 

"The warp trail comes to an end up ahead," said Cartwright.

"Sensors indicate a large space station, possibly a starbase or shipyard," Brok added. "I'll be able to perform a more detailed scan when we come out of warp."

"All ships," Drake said to Sturnn, and when the comm officer had opened the channel, he continued, "Yellow alert. Shields up, weapons on standby. Let's expect trouble here, people."

"_How wise."_

"_You're a ray of sunshine today."_

"_As you of all people should know, Alex, the unknown is usually dangerous. How many new civilisations shoot first and leave the questions to the historians?"_

"_I know that's your philosophy…"_

"_What can I say?" _Kana grinned._ "I'm a pragmatist."_

Alex shook her head and dropped the starship out of subspace. The other Federation vessels appeared on her wing a moment later, and the five craft cruised towards the station in a line. At this range they could already see that the installation was a massive shipyard, housing dozens of vessels. And unless Alex's eyes were playing tricks, one of those ships looked very familiar indeed.

"Will…"

He had seen it too. "Walker, magnify the top-left pens."

The view shifted, four ships and their docking berths came into clear focus on the view screen. Pini gasped, but she was the only one who was really surprised by what she saw; everyone else had suspected it.

Tholiar observed it aloud, just in case someone wasn't paying attention. "That's the _Daedalus_."

"So it is," said Drake darkly.

Kana was standing behind the captain's chair. Her loud laugh caused Alex to snap around and stare at her. Fortunately, everyone else was too engrossed with the view screen to notice. _"Billy-boy sounds angry. I think we're going to have some fun here."_

"Captain," warned Brok, "we have multiple vessels on approach. Sensors indicate corvette-class tonnage. Confirmed. Hostile posturing, sir; delta formation. They have charged their hull plating and…_disruptors_?"

"Disruptors?" Repeated Tholiar.

"Disruptors, sir. Readings indicate standard Klingon disruptor cannons."

"That explains something," said the first officer. "The Klingons captured our ship."

Drake agreed with her reasoning, but Brok shook his head. "I don't think so, sir. These ships aren't of Klingon design."

The captain could see that for himself now. Walker had shifted the screen's focus so that they could see the ships clearly: slim, triangular vessels with bulbous engines at the rear, and visible weapon ports. They were dark grey, and tagged with a red symbol that Drake could not identify – presumably the military crest of their species.

"Their hull materials and propulsion systems are definitely not Klingon, sir," pointed out Walker, as though anyone needed to be told so at this point. "Their structural design is wrong, and the station isn't Klingon architecture."

"An ally?"

"Have you ever heard of a Klingon ally?" Smirked Alex. "They're about the most unsociable creatures in the galaxy. Even mosquitoes have more mates."

"Those ships, whoever they are, are entering weapons range, sir," Brok said.

The screen flashed bright blue just a second later and the ship bucked hard, throwing to the deck everyone who couldn't grab hold of something solid in time. A moment later red alert sounded, automatically activating the ship's weaponry and putting the shields to full strength. Main lighting dimmed around the _Endeavour_ as red panels began to flash, highlighting the heightened alert status, and calling all personnel to their action stations.

"Direct hit to the forward shield; down by fifteen percent."

"Main power is offline on deck two, sections four, five, six and seven!"

"Decks two, nine and eleven are calling for medical teams."

"Return fire," Drake shouted over the din of klaxon and damage reports. "Full phase cannons. Target the nearest ship and fire!"

"_Patton_ and _Helios_ report heavy fire."

Two streams of pink phased energy speared the attacking vessel amidships. Its polarised hull absorbed the bombardment comfortably. Brok's next salvo raked up and down the craft, hunting for a weak point in its defences. Traditionally, hull plating around the engines was weaker than in other areas, but this fighter proved an exception to the rule. He couldn't find any way past their armour, short of hammering it away piece by piece, which he set about doing.

"Phase cannons ineffective," Brok advised. "They're too close for torpedoes."

"Engineering, reroute auxiliary power to the phase cannons. We need a stronger punch."

"I'll give you all I've got, Captain, but we're taking damage down here."

"Hold her together, Chief."

The fighter was joined by a second, and then a third. The trio set about the _Endeavour_ with their disruptor cannons, focusing their efforts on the ship's warp nacelles. They attacked in a pyramid formation, each corvette flying in from a different corner of the structure, manoeuvring hard and firing harder. They didn't fly in straight lines, making it more difficult for Brok to acquire a target lock, and they evaded the ship's main firing arcs diligently; only the weaker secondary phase cannons and point-defence plasma turrets could track them, and those weapons were no use against the corvettes' reinforced hull plating.

"They're giving us a pounding," Chief Fran called over the crackling comm. "Shields are weakening, and the starboard nacelle is starting to buckle!"

"Alex, keep them away from our engines!"

"I'm trying," she sweated. The ship was getting heavier, less responsive as the damage mounted. Helming her was becoming a strain. "But they're manoeuvrable little buggers! Fast, too. They're determined to go after our nacelles."

"They know our weak points."

"Daddy told them."

The captain was surprised to hear that voice, a young girl's voice. It drifted to his ears from the back of the bridge, where she stood by the turbolifts. She was a child of about eight; the only non-Starfleet person left aboard the ship. She wore a simple yellow dress that matched her free-hanging blond hair. When not covered by shadow, her eyes were bright blue and disturbingly intelligent. She was called Susan, a genetically engineered Augment, created by a secretive organisation within Starfleet. When they no longer saw fit to continue the project, they had sought to destroy all of the prototypes, including her. She had only survived because of the kindness of Dr Miranda Pauli, who had got her out of Federation space to Mansfield trading station, where Alex and Drake had been meeting one of the helmsmen's shadier friends.

Drake had been too focused on the enemy ships to notice her arrival, or even remember that the girl was still aboard – it had been too dangerous to leave her on VX-41; there was no telling how far that secret Starfleet section's influence spread. Now he asked her, "Susan, what are you doing up here?"

She looked at him blankly for a moment, as though she didn't understand what she was hearing. Then she braced herself, just before another blast rocked the ship. She stood steady as the deck heaved around her, like an ancient sailing vessel on a stormy sea. How had she learned to do that? Or, possibly more accurately, whose mind had she pulled that knowledge from?

"Daddy told them," Susan repeated. "He made his wings from wax. His son flies with us. Not too close to the sun."

"_Daedalus_!" Exclaimed Alex. "They studied the _Daedalus_. Learnt our vulnerabilities from her."

"_Oh, like it took a genius to work that one out!"_

A disruptor bolt slammed into the defensive force field around the bridge dome. The environmental science station exploded in a shower of sparks. Ensign Jumaii, the operator, was thrown to the deck with a sharp piece of glass sticking out of his arm. He was lucky. If he had been facing the console face-on when it had exploded, he would have been killed. A medic came to his assistance immediately, and Susan grabbed a hand extinguisher and put out the fire eating away at the console's remains. She had learnt the ship's emergency response protocols.

"If they know all of _Daedalus_' weaknesses, we're in trouble," said Brok. "Those ships are fast and hard to get a lock on. They'll pick us apart, and I can't hit them back."

"They're flying too close; I can't evade them."

The next salvo shook the _Endeavour_ to her bones. This time, even Susan was caught unaware, and the child was sent skating across the deck. She crashed heavily against the rim of the science console and lay there, dazed, until Tholiar helped her up. Medic Clark quickly examined her, and was relieved to find her unharmed.

A whole new set of alarms were ringing, demanding urgent attention. Tholiar pushed Susan into her seat, to keep her from being thrown around again, and stumbled across the bridge to the damage report monitors. There was an alarming amount of red on the display.

"What happened?" Drake called. He knew every sound that a Daedalus-class vessel could make, and from the way the hull had protested during that last shaking, he knew that the shields had failed somewhere.

Tholiar gave the bad news. "Shields around the nacelles have collapsed. That last shot hit the hull. Plating is at sixty-percent."

"_Helios_ reports complete shield failure, sir," advised Sturnn, his comm channels flooded with damage and casualty reports from across the squadron. "_Icarus_ has lost her phase cannons, and both _Grant_ and _Patton_ are under sustained attack."

"We can't win this," translated Alex.

Much as he hated it, she was right. The aggressors had inflicted heavy damage, and so far none of the Starfleet ships had even been able to scratch them back. The enemy had stronger weapons and knew where to hit with them; they had the advantage. He had to order retreat, or his ships would be lost. It galled him, but it was the only choice.

"All ships. Go to warp. Pull back."

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"We have driven them off."

He could see that for himself: the scanner screen showed the three Daedalus-class ships and their escorts vanishing into subspace.

"Losses?"

"None on either side. We failed to capture any of the ships, Commissar. I am sorry."

The commanding officer merely shrugged. "Not a concern. Our objective was to drive those people away, and that has been done. I consider that to be a success, Lieutenant."

"So do I, sir."

The man was a gutless suck up, which was why the Commissar kept him around. It was always nice to have someone who agreed with your way of thinking. It bolstered the ego a bit.

"Of course, they will be back. We must be prepared for that. Send word to Central Command. Request reinforcements."

"Sir?" The Lieutenant was puzzled by this decision. "Our defence force was more than adequate to hold them off."

"Yes. But now they know the strength of our forces, they will return with more ships. We must be ready."

The Lieutenant nodded. "As you wish, sir."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five 

Captain Drake paced his small quarters, waiting impatiently for the complete squadron damage report to be delivered by his yeoman. Alex sat in the cabin's single comfortable chair; sipping a glass of double malt Scotch and watching her friend wear out the deck plates. He had asked for her presence, but after pouring her a drink he seemed to have forgotten that she was around.

"_He doesn't take defeat well, does he?"_ Mentioned Kana, lounging against the door and tracking Drake with her harsh red eyes; his up and down motion made her think of a yoyo, and she was tempted to conjure hers up and play with it.

"_Of course not. He's a Starfleet captain. If he loses, the world ends."_

Drake stopped pacing and looked over at them, seeing only Alex. Although he was her best friend, she hadn't trusted him with the knowledge of her companion, and nor did she plan to. "How can you be so calm?"

"Worrying isn't going to help. Once we know how badly we've been hurt, we can start wondering how to proceed."

"They couldn't have known we were coming, yet their hastily assembled defence defeated three Daedalus-class and two Phobos-class ships. With what? Little corvettes packing Klingon weaponry." He clenched a fist and smacked it into his palm. "They knew exactly where to hit us."

"You heard what Susan said: they got our weaknesses from the _Daedalus_ databanks."

"A fine theory. But that leaves me even more worried, if it's true. They've only had that ship for a few days, and already they understand it well enough to access classified information in its computer files."

Alex understood her friend's worries: "If we leave it in their hands for much longer, who says they won't be able to build their own _Daedalus_?"

"Exactly."

She thought about it for a moment or two. From what they had seen so far, the aliens were adept at reverse-engineering captured technology – she could think of no other explanation for how they came to possess Klingon weaponry. But it would take them a lot longer to understand how to recreate the _Daedalus_, bolt for bolt, than it had to learn how to work the computer. Especially since… "They captured the ship and crew. It's possible that someone showed them how to run the database."

"You're suggesting that a Starfleet officer betrayed our secrets to the enemy," Drake said, sounding appalled.

Alex shrugged. "They're captives. Not everyone has the Federation's enlightened views on humane treatment of prisoners."

The captain nodded, understanding his friend's point. The Klingons, Orions, and Suliban had never shown any compunction about using torture to gain information from prisoners, and he was willing to bet that the Romulans practiced it as well. Such barbarism was far too common in the galaxy. It was easy, if uncomfortable, to believe that those aliens had put Hiro and his crew through Hell to get what they wanted.

Which just made him want to hurt them all the more.

"We shouldn't have withdrawn so easily."

"If we'd stayed, we'd have been pasted."

Good counter. He should have anticipated it.

"Maybe. But we should have given them a parting gift. A volley of photonic torpedoes, right into that shipyard."

"Might have killed some of our people, if they're being held captive there," began Alex, but then she paused, listening to a voice that only she could hear. "Then again, who's to say that's where our people are? We don't know how extensive these aliens' territory is."

Drake calmed and thought. "That's a good point."

His cabin door chimed, and Drake answered it. Yeoman Birch handed him a data slate and backed out again without saying a word. He had already glanced at the slate on his way down from the bridge, and knew that the captain wouldn't be pleased.

Drake scanned through the information, dropped the slate onto his desk, and swore. Alex took another sip of her drink and enquired, "Bad news?"

"_Helios_ is a wreck; it's going to take days to get her functional again. _Icarus_ has lost main power on most decks, and we're not in great shape ourselves. Only _Patton_ and _Grant_ escaped crippling damage, and that's probably only because their plans weren't in the _Daedalus'_ computer." He forced himself to calm down, perched on the edge of his desk, and looked at her. "A few minutes' fighting, and all our ships are disabled. Bastards."

"How long?"

"_Patton_ and _Grant_ will be fully operational with just a few hours' work. Chief Fran estimates about a day to restore full systems here, and another day for _Icarus_. With _Helios_ we're looking at a week just to get her warp drive back online."

"She warped here okay."

"Yeah, but that took it out of her. Her core was so close to rupturing when we came out of warp that they considered jettisoning. Primary systems are offline all across the _Helios_, and the _Patton_'s standing by to assist in evacuation, if anything else breaks. Those…whoever they were really concentrated their fire on that ship."

Alex rolled that around her head, until a reason came to her. "Makes sense. If they've been through the _Daedalus_' computer they'd know that Captain Swift is the senior captain of our group."

"They didn't know that I'd been given command."

"Which at least tells us that they haven't broken our communications protocols."

"Small comfort," said Drake.

Alex grinned, seeing a chance for adventure opening up before her. "Well, actually, it is good news. It means we can perform our reconnaissance and report what we find without worrying about having our transmissions intercepted."

Drake waved the data slate. "Weren't you paying attention, Alex? Our ships are in no condition to do anything right now."

"There's the _Shadow Wing_."

"Your ship?"

"Unless we've got another _Shadow Wing_ in the squadron somewhere," she smiled.

Drake knew what she was suggesting, and he didn't like it. "Your vessel is minimally armed and doesn't have proper shields. If you get attacked you don't stand a chance. We learnt that last time."

"Those were Orion marauders. Completely different."

"There isn't a handy warship graveyard nearby for you to use, either."

She had known he was going to throw that one at her, and she had been prepared for it. "My ship's highly manoeuvrable, they won't hit me. Besides, they have to find me before they can shoot me. _Shadow Wing_ was a smuggling vessel; she's designed to evade scans. You know that."

"Federation scans," Drake countered. "We have no idea what scanners are fitted on their ships. Your sensor screen's no good against Orion scanners."

"That's because the _Shadow Wing_ is Orion. They built all of her technology; they know how to find her. Besides, that was a special situation: those were high-priced assassins; they had all the best kit in creation. Normally, nothing can find the _Wing _unless I want it to. No one builds a stealth ship like the Orions." She considered for a moment and admitted, "Well…maybe the Sulliban, but they just don't count. Come on, Will. You said it yourself; the starships are stuck here for a day or more. I can use that time to gather valuable intelligence."

Drake knew from long association with his friend that once she got it into her head to do something no amount of arguing would make her change her mind. Stubborn didn't even begin to describe Alex Nain. If she thought that she was right, nothing would keep her from her course. She would find a way to get out there and do what she thought was necessary.

He poured himself a Scotch, taking his time about it so that he could think it through. There were advantages to what she was suggesting, and one very big risk. Did the potential benefits out way that danger? Yes, they did. But this was Alex, and that changed everything. No amount of information, no matter how useful, was worth her life.

She would never forgive him if he forbade her from doing this.

"You're just bored, aren't you?"

"Terminally. Will, come on. Yeah, I'm antsy, but I'm right, too. We could do with some intelligence on these bastards. I can get it."

"You're not going alone."

She shrugged chirpily. "Wasn't planning to." She smiled affectionately at Kana, who was now standing behind Drake, resting an immaterial hand on the captain's shoulder like a lover. That hand was quickly withdrawn, and Kana said uncharitably, _"I don't recall volunteering."_

"_Like you get a vote."_

"You're taking Major Tyler and his marines. That's not up for debate, Alex."

The marines had come aboard at VX-41; at the same time the science team had been offloaded. Alex hadn't had much to do with them, and had hoped to keep it that way. She didn't have much time for military hard nuts. She preferred the scientists. Okay, Sarn had been the only one of that group whom she hadn't felt like punching at one point or another, but that was still one more than the marines.

She missed the Vulcan.

"They'll cramp my style," she moaned.

He folded his arms and regarded her sternly. "Not up for debate."

"Fine. Tell your soldiers to meet me in the shuttlebay, in one hour."

"Why an hour?"

Alex slugged her drink back and beamed. "Well, they need to gear up, and I need to get changed. If you think I'm going out in these blue overalls you've got another thing coming, Will."

"This is a Starfleet mission," he reminded her.

She nodded. "Yup. _This_," she gestured around the cabin, "is a Starfleet mission. But as soon as my ship gets involved, it becomes _my_ mission. And then we do things my way."

"Major Tyler isn't going to like your way."

Alex very bluntly explained what Major Tyler could do about his displeasure.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six 

The _Shadow Wing_ lived up to its name perfectly: it was a black object, shaped like a bird's wing, designed for speed and manoeuvrability, and fitted with dozens of hidden cargo compartments to go about its illegal business; compartments that were now filled with weapons, ammunition, explosives, medical supplies, and a whole host of other FMACO bits and pieces that Alex couldn't identify, didn't want to have aboard, and had been told in no uncertain terms to stay away from. There was a mutual animosity aboard: Alex didn't want to have the marines on her ship, and they thought her untrustworthy and dangerous.

It annoyed her most that they had a point there.

Fourteen hours had passed since she had left the _Endeavour_. She had taken the _Shadow Wing_ close to the shipyard where the _Daedalus_ was being held, and picked up on a warp trail, which she had been following ever since. She didn't know where it led, but Kana had said that she had a good feeling about it, and that was recommendation enough for her.

Major Tyler, on the other hand, was less convinced. He was six-foot three, in his mid-thirties, square-jawed, and wore his brown hair at bristle-length. His military precision had irritated Alex from the moment that she had laid eyes on him, and his personality had done nothing to improve her opinion of him. "We have been following this trail for hours, Lieutenant, without learning anything about our enemy. You don't even know where it leads."

She pivoted her chair away from the crescent-shaped helm console and smiled her most obnoxious smile. She didn't like Tyler, mainly because he didn't like her. "It leads somewhere."

"Somewhere? We should be using this time to ascertain the enemy's strength, monitor ship movements around that shipyard; not chase shadows."

"You know, maybe you're right. Tell you what, I'll drop you off by the station and you can keep an eye on it."

He was caught off guard, and he smelt a trap. "What?"

"I've got a space suit around here somewhere. You can borrow it. And I promise I'll be back before you run out of air. Scout's honour."

The dour marine scowled. "There's no need for sarcasm."

"But I enjoy it so much!"

The major refused to waste his breath on the young woman any longer. With a disgusted snort, he turned away from her and marched out of the cockpit. Kana watched him go, laughed contemptuously, and then turned her attention to her host. _"You have far more patience than I. If that fool had spoken to me like that, I would have…"_

"_Killed him, burnt the body and salted the earth?"_

"_Something like that."_

Alex chuckled and stole a glance at her instruments. Clear space all around and no sign of pursuit; she left the helm in the electronic hands of the autopilot, and conversed with her companion. _"You're sure about this, though? Tyler's a wanker, but he's right that we shouldn't be wasting our time out here."_

"_We're not. This road leads to the _Daedalus_ crew."_

"_You're sure?"_

"_Certain. They wouldn't have left the _Daedalus_ crew too close to their ship, but they also wouldn't have sent them too far away, in case they were needed again. This warp trail terminates at a space station, large enough to function as a detention facility."_

"_How do you know all that?"_

Kana ran a finger along her cheekbone. _"These pretty red eyes see more than yours."_

She had to take the entity's word for that. Certainly in the past she had demonstrated an ability to see and understand things that her host did not. Why shouldn't this be another example?

"_I'll have to…do you hear snoring?"_

Lieutenant Miles was waiting just outside the cockpit, and he fell into step at Tyler's side when the major stepped out into the short hallway. "Sir? She didn't listen?"

Something that the major had always liked about Miles: he was a mind reader.

"Not to one word. We're wasting time here, Lieutenant."

The other man was diplomatic. "Captain Drake seems like a sensible man, sir. He wouldn't given her this job if he didn't trust her."

"She's Drake's friend, he's not a marine. You can't trust his judgement when it comes to her."

"Yes, sir."

The lieutenant stopped walking and stood, listening to something, frowning. "Do you hear that, sir?"

"Hear what?"

"It sounds like…snoring?" He looked baffled, because it couldn't be. But he listened and listened, and there could be no doubting it. Snoring. Soft, fairly quiet, but audible and unmistakable. "It's coming from under the deck plates?"

The cockpit door opened and Alex walked out, her long blue cloak swishing around her. She noticed the marines standing around, and her sharp red eyes snapped to Tyler. "Major, is one of your people napping in one of my smuggling compartments? 'Cause I'll be pissed if they are."

"You can hear it too?" Asked Miles.

"That was kinda implied, wasn't it? All right, where's that coming from?" She lost all interest in the marines, and headed forward, straining her ears to follow the snoring. She stopped over one particular floor panel, bent down and pulled it open. Her eyes widened. "Susan?"

The child was curled up in the tiny compartment, wrapped around a box of grenades, sleeping peacefully. She had stolen a blanket from the ship's supply closet and wrapped it around her small body; her head was resting on a partially defrosted bag of peas. At the sound of Alex's voice, her eyelids fluttered open. She yawned and sat up, blinking the sleep from her eyes.

"Hi," she said perkily.

"Susan? What the hell are you doing here?"

She stood and stretched, before climbing out of the compartment. "I missed this ship. I hid in here from the Orions. It's cosy."

"Yeah, I remember. Susan, you shouldn't be here. We're heading into…well…it could be dangerous."

"I know. You'll need me. The Dark Soul won't be enough."

"Dark Soul?" Repeated Tyler, frowning.

Kana took control for a moment, her exotic powers lighting up Alex's eyes – something that went unnoticed by the marines. "She means me." She told Tyler, before focusing on the Augment child, smiling her least unpleasant smile. "What do you mean I won't be enough?"

"There are bad things there. Bad men. They'll fight us if they can, betray us if they see a way. You won't be able to protect her. Maybe not any of us."

"But you can?" It was obvious from her voice that she found that highly doubtful. If _she_ couldn't protect Alex, what did this runt of a telepath hope to do?

The marines looked at each other, wondering what those two were on about.

Susan shrugged, and then her stomach rumbled loudly, to her embarrassment. "Sorry. I'm a little hungry."

"I'll get you something to eat," offered Lieutenant Miles, kindly. He had some experience with children; his sister had twins, about Susan's age.

"I want Alex," protested Susan.

The helmsman was more unsettled than she was flattered. She had never wanted to be a mother, never much liked children, and Susan's attachment to her was greatly uncomfortable for her. She took a step back, before the girl could touch her.

"I'd better stay near the helm. Go with Miles," she said, quickly reading the marine's name from his uniform. "He's not as bad as he looks."

The child considered for a moment, before doing as she was told. Alex watched them go, and then returned to the cockpit, Major Tyler on her heels. He waited until the door was closed, before he said again, "Dark Soul?"

"That's just what she calls me."

"Interesting nickname."

Alex spun her seat around so that she held the major in her icy gaze. "I have the distinct impression that you're going somewhere with this, Major. Spit it out. I have no patience for games, unless they involve cards, dice and big money."

He didn't smile. "You have a reputation for mischief. I know a bit about you, Nain. I keep up with the news. Whenever your name pops up, disaster's not far behind."

"Yeah, I'm cursed," said Alex dryly. "It's a real bugger."

"I don't know if you're exceptionally unlucky, or if it's something else, but I don't believe in coincidence. I had friends on Van De Berg."

"Ah, I get it now. You're playing the blame game. That doesn't have dice _or_ cards, so I don't think I'll play."

"A friend of mine saw you down on the fuel deck, minutes before it caught fire. You were the only person he saw pass by. So if you didn't do it…"

Alex gave him a very thin stare. "Shoddy maintenance and a failure to follow safety procedures. That's what blew up Van De Berg."

The Major shook his head. "I read the inquest findings as well, Lieutenant."

"But you don't believe them?"

"No. Like I said, I knew people aboard that station. They wouldn't have been so careless. Something else destroyed Van De Berg."

Alex was starting to feel decidedly insulted, particularly as she had had nothing to do with the destruction of the fuel station. Well…very little, anyway. She hadn't actually started any fires. She'd just dodged the plasma bolt intended for her, and it had ruptured a fuel line, and…well…little sparks could lead to such big fires.

It wasn't like anyone had got killed. Except for the bastard who had taken a shot at her, and he had deserved it. Okay, there had been a lot of wounded, and there were some survivors who would never be the same again, but they were all _alive_. And things would have been much worse if that…what was it Kana had called it? She couldn't remember. Something starting with v. That _whatever_ had been left to carry out its mission.

She didn't feel like admitting any of that. She hadn't said any of it to the board of inquest, and she sure as hell wasn't about to tell an irksome FMACO major. She hit him with one of her most chilly stares, one of the ones that made her red eyes seem as cold and hard as space, and advised, "If you're going to make an accusation, Major, come out with it. Else, shut the hell up and get out of my cockpit."

Tyler closed his mouth, not prepared to make an outright accusation without proof; but he made no move to leave Alex in peace. She could have forced him, she supposed. He was taller than she, and probably stronger, but she would bet that she could manhandle him through the door; and if she couldn't, Kana certainly could. But it wouldn't do her any favours to get aggressive with the major. He already had enough reasons to give her grief; she didn't need to give him any more.

Kana was perched on the flight console. She gave Alex a few seconds to get a handle on her temper, before teasing, _"Great show. What do you do for an encore?"_

"_Shut up and play with your bloody yoyo."_

"_Good idea,"_ approved Kana. She conjured the toy and sent it winding up and down, grinning with childish glee, which just made Alex all the more irritable.

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In the tiny mess hall, Sergeant Harrison and Captain Levin were tucking into a healthy lunch of military-issue ration packs. The synthesizers _Shadow Wing_ carried were capable of producing much more appetising meals, but Major Tyler had forbidden their use. It was an order that continued to puzzle Harrison, and he asked his friend about it.

"He doesn't trust Nain."

They were alone, so he was free to speak fairly freely with the superior officer. "I noticed. Why not?"

The captain bit into his wafer and tried to imagine that it had flavour; any flavour was fine. "I asked him once. He said something about her being dangerous and untrustworthy and stuff like that."

Harrison could tell there was more to that comment. "You don't believe him?"

"No. I've read bits of Nain's service record – I read all the _Endeavour_ officers before coming aboard their ship. She wasn't involved in the war effort. Well, not until right at the end."

Now Harrison understood, and he nodded; no more needed to be said. The major had always resented those people who had refused to fight in the conflict. Justifiably. How could any red-blooded human not have answered the call to take up arms against the aggressive Romulans? His brother hadn't, and they hadn't spoken since. He doubted that he would ever be able to forgive him.

Miles entered the mess hall, leading with him a little girl with blond hair, who broke away from his hand as soon as she was in the hall and raced to the synthesizers. Before the lieutenant could stop her, she had had the machine produce her a large chocolate sundae, and was digging in messily.

Harrison was bemused. "Hey…I recognise her. Isn't that that girl from the _Endeavour_?"

"I think you're right. What's she doing here?"

"What's she doing on the starship?"

Levin shook his head. "Beats me. I asked, but no one would give me a straight answer. Someone they rescued from the Orions, I was told."

"A passenger? Why wasn't she offloaded on VX-41?"

"I don't know. Like I said, no one would talk about her."

"I guess if I'd been in Orion hands, I wouldn't be too eager to leave the safety of a starship."

"Ain't that the truth."

"But then…why's she here?"

Susan looked up from her sundae, her face covered with ice cream. "This was the ship that rescued me. Alex rescued me. I like her. She makes me feel safe. The Dark Soul's kinda creepy, but she's funny too, so I like her."

None of the marines knew what to say to that, so they returned to their eating. Levin wondered again who this 'Dark Soul' was. Somehow, he couldn't get himself to believe that it was Alex Nain the girl was talking about.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven 

Alex noticed a contact on her sensor boards, which caught her attention. It was as Kana had promised: a large space station, easily capable of holding a thousand or more persons in comfort. It was also right along the line of the warp trail they had been following. Whoever had flown from the _Daedalus_ yard, this was where they had ended up. She was inclined to agree with her companion, and believe that it was the _Daedalus_ crew who had been flown here. Maybe that was wishful thinking.

She took the ship out of warp, and brought up the enhanced visual sensor image on the monitors. Major Tyler joined her in studying the twig-like space station. It was an ugly, impractical form, and it seemed very dark to Alex's eyes. It took her a moment to realise this was because there were no windows. The only reason they could see the station at all was because of the lanterns strung around its exterior, presumably to help visually guide in docking ships.

Tyler dropped into the sensor position, took a moment to familiarise himself with the layout of the instruments, and ran a discrete scan; low power, to minimise the chance of it being detected. "Structural materials match the fighters that engaged us before. It's not a shipyard. I'm detecting minimal weaponry; just a handful of outdated plasma turrets. One moment…there are fighters on patrol. Not a large squadron and their patrol route isn't very efficient. They're not expecting any trouble."

Alex brought the ship to relative stop. She leant over Tyler's shoulder and read his screens, almost surprised to see that he had interpreted the data correctly. "Life signs?"

"Checking now," new numbers scrolled across the monitor. "This is interesting. Bio-scanner detects approximately a hundred humans over there, eighty Tellarites, forty Andorians…a handful of other Federation species."

"_Daedalus'_ crew."

He nodded. "It looks like it."

Alex slid back into the helm seat. "All those 'you're wasting time following that warp trail' comments, Major? You can apologise any time now."

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"Nain to _Endeavour_."

"_Endeavour_; Brok here," the Bolian tactical officer replied, moving into the centre seat so that he could converse comfortably with the helmsman, whose image filled the main screen. Her red eyes tracked his movements, displaying the blend of amusement and contempt she always wore when talking to him. They were best of enemies, a relationship that suited them both down to the ground.

"You're in command, Blue? I didn't realise things were so desperate over there."

"Captain and first officer are supervising repairs, and our airhead second officer's entertaining some marines."

"She's not having as much fun as it sounds. But still, you've got the big seat? What, Pini wasn't available?"

"Charming," he replied. "What do you want, Nain?"

"We've located the _Daedalus_ crew. Coordinates enclosed."

Brok looked over at Cartwright, who nodded when the numbers appeared on his board. "We've got them. You're going to suggest an extraction operation, aren't you?"

"This place is minimally defended, Blue. A handful of fighters and some plasma turrets. We can hit it, get our people out, and be gone before reinforcements can get here."

"It would take hours to shuttle two hundred-fifty personnel to the fleet."

"Use the transporters." She saw Brok's face and continued before he could speak. "I know. I don't like it either. But you're right; we have to get them to our ships fast. All ships using their transporters, we can have them all aboard in minutes."

Brok realised that she was making a sensible suggestion, but like most Starfleet officers, like most people, he wasn't in love with the transporter. Getting torn apart at the molecular level and rebuilt somewhere else…it wasn't something he ever wanted to experience. He doubted many of the _Daedalus_ personnel were in a rush to go through it, either.

"I'll pass it along to the captain. Be advised, Alex, that we're still not ready for action. Chief Fran's revised his repair estimates upwards."

"Engineers," grinned Alex. "Always takes twice as long and costs twice as much as their first estimate. All right, we'll take a look for ourselves."

She had found the _Daedalus_ crew, and now the starship captains could formulate a rescue plan. Anyone else in Starfleet would have left it at that. He knew his shipmate, though, and knew that she wouldn't.

"Alex…"

Why was he bothering to argue? She wouldn't listen. He knew that as surely as he knew his skin was blue.

"This place suffers from the usual prison issues: prisoners outnumber guards a dozen to one. All we've got to do is get aboard, open some doors, and the place is ours."

"If they send a distress call…"

"They'll find it won't get anywhere." A cruel grin plucked at her lips. "My ship was designed for pirate operations, Blue. No one sends any messages I don't want them to."

He wondered how often she had used the illegal features installed on her ship, how often she had played the part of the smuggler or the pirate. He didn't really want to know.

"You know what the captain will say."

Alex Nain grinned very broadly. "Yeah. And he knows I'll ignore him and do my own thing anyway. Look, I've already talked it through with Tyler, and he agrees with me. We slip aboard, neutralise their defenders and release the prisoners. You guys get here as soon as you can. Then, as a fleet, we can retake the _Daedalus_."

Brok thought the plan sounded far too risky to be sane. It was much more likely that Nain and the marines would be captured or killed than achieve their objective. He told her so.

"Maybe. So you'd better hurry up and get here, hadn't you? Nain out."

The tactical officer instructed Sturnn to re-establish contact, but he was unable to. Alex's ship could block incoming signals as well as outgoing ones.

Anticipating the captain's feelings at this turn of events, he pressed the ship-wide intercom on the armrest and called, "Bridge to Captain Drake."

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"As I promised, the Starfleeters have led us to our men." Ragh said, smugly.

The main view screen showed a tactical display of the prison station, a clutch of orange dots representing the Klingon life forms held aboard. They had followed the Starfleet stealth craft to this location, or rather; they had followed the warp trail the Starfleet ship had flown along. Their sensors had been unable to detect the craft since it had activated its shields; they had only known it had launched at all because the ship had briefly registered when _Endeavour_ had launched it, before the scrambling-shield went up. Ragh had reasoned (that was, he had guessed) what course the craft would follow.

"We should attack," Kem'Tok declared.

"Unsound."

The captain turned on him. "Explain yourself, Tactician."

"We would reveal ourselves to the Starfleeters before we are ready."

"Pah! We can smash their puny little ship."

"Yes," he spoke as he would to a particularly dim child. "But can we stand against their fleet? No."

Kem'Tok growled. "I will not hide from my enemies."

"I am not suggesting that we do. But we would be foolish to fight two enemies at once. These…_p'tahk_ that captured our ships, they are our most dangerous foe here."

"You are suggesting…alliance?" Kem'Tok spat out the word. "Alliance with the Federation?"

Ragh and the rest of the crew were as appalled by the idea as Captain Kem'Tok himself.

"No! Merely, we let them do our work for us. They will attack the installation, free their people." He pressed a button and green Federation life signs appeared on the screen. "Let them weaken themselves taking the station. Then we will take it from them."

Kem'Tok at last understood. He liked it. Battle against the Federation ships, and the station. Even with the Starfleeters weakened from capturing the station, victory would bring glory and promotion his way.

"Very well." He sank comfortably into his chair. "We shall wait, and prepare. Hail our reinforcements. Order them to join us immediately."

It was the first intelligent order Ragh could remember Kem'Tok giving, and he obeyed it with uncharacteristic readiness.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight 

"Weapons on stun," Alex instructed the marines, helping herself to a pair of phase pistols from the weapons locker. She ejected the power cells, inspected them to ensure that they were undamaged and fully charged, and slotted them back home. She would have preferred a good old-fashioned pair of six-shot revolvers – she was an ace with those weapons – but they didn't have a stun setting. Neither did the particle accelerator cannon she had salvaged from the ancient warship, which was a pity. She liked that cannon.

Lieutenant Miles queried, "Stun, sir?"

"Stun. We're not killing anyone."

"_Spoil sport."_

"They tried to kill us," grumbled Sergeant Harrison, adjusting the setting on his pulse rifle.

Alex gave him one of her hardest stares, and watched all of the grizzled marine's defiance melt out of him. She had a hell of a look. "We're better than them."

"Yes, sir."

There were no further complaints, so Major Tyler took over the briefing, which was being held in the main cargo bay, the largest open area on Alex's ship. "Three teams of four. We'll dock here, at this airlock," he gestured to the printed map that was lain out across a crate, "force it open and make our way inside. Teams one and two will sweep upwards and take control of the operations centre; team three will head down to free the _Daedalus_ prisoners. The enemy could detect our boarding, and if they do they'll send a distress call. The ship will jam all outgoing transmissions. Harrison, Colt, Madeira, that's where you come in. Lieutenant Nain has shown you what to do. Block all of their transmissions. If any of the fighters attempt to leave your jamming field, you're ordered to disable them. Is that understood?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Chimed the three men selected to remain aboard. They wanted to be going with their friends into action, Alex could sense their disappointment, but they understood the importance of their task.

"You all have your assigned teams –"

"I don't," interrupted Alex.

Tyler gave her a patient look. "You're with me, Lieutenant. No offence, but I'd rather have you where I can keep an eye on you."

"Still don't trust me?"

"It's not that. We're professional soldiers, you're a helmsman. I'll be covering your back personally."

"_Translation: he doesn't trust you as far as he could throw you."_

"Thank you, Major," Alex smiled at him. "I'm touched by your concern for my welfare."

"All part of the job. Now, you all have your assigned teams. Levin, Miles, your teams will hit the operations centre. My people will spring Captain Matsura and his crew."

"_He's keeping us out of the way."_ Kana pouted. _"I wanted to attack the command centre. That sounds like a lot more fun."_

"_Jailbreak, Kana. It's gonna be fun enough."_

There were no questions, so Tyler instructed his teams to assemble at the airlock. As they filed out, he handed his pulse rifle to Alex. She took the weapon from him, looked at it, and wondered why she was holding it.

"You're going to need something that packs more of a hit than that pistol of yours," he explained.

Alex lifted the weapon to her shoulder and sighted along its barrel, testing its weight and finding it comfortable. "Sure you trust me with this?"

"I never said I distrust you. Just that disaster seems to happen when you're around."

"Well," she slipped the rifle's strap over her shoulders and let it hang, "we could be in trouble here, couldn't we?"

"Maybe. But so long as the station doesn't blow up around us, my boys will get the job done."

"_I bet you any money that the guy defending that station will say the same about his men,"_ suggested Kana.

"Get some armour, Lieutenant," said Tyler, patting the flexible chest plate that he was wearing: matte grey, with the FMACO crest on the right breast, and built to withstand a phase rifle blast.

Alex shook her head. "Nah. I hate body armour. It looks ridiculous."

Tyler glanced at the sky blue trousers, vest and billowing cloak that she wore. His expression changed to something that could, very loosely, be called a smile. "No comment."

Susan had been sitting at the back of the cargo bay, listening to everything that had been said, and everything that had been thought. Now, she asked, "What do I get to do?"

"Stay here, on the ship, where it's safe."

She was at first surprised, then aggravated. "What? Why?"

"This is a dangerous situation, Susan. I won't put you at risk."

"I can take care of myself!"

Alex was pleasant, but firm. "Sorry. But Miranda would nag me something fierce if anything happened to you. And Miho would kill me, probably in a very unpleasant way. There would be blood and pain and probably a lot of screaming. You're staying here, where it's safe."

There was no changing her mind. Although only a child, Susan could tell that – she could sense Alex's steely determination and knew that she wouldn't be able to wear her down. She also knew that she had no chance of convincing Major Tyler to support her – he thought that she should have been returned to the _Endeavour_ as soon as she had been discovered to be aboard – so she turned to the only other person who could help her.

"Dark Soul?"

Kana's fire appeared in Alex's eyes. She folded her arms firmly. "No means no." A moment later, she had to keep herself from cackling as she added, "Cry as much as you want."

The Augment child elected to do just that. Kana led Tyler out of the cargo bay, and closed the door behind her.

"_We could have handled that better,"_ decided Alex, taking control back.

"_Sure. But it wouldn't have been as much fun."_

Nuzzling Alex's craft into the airlock was a simple matter; the _Shadow Wing_ was designed to be able to discretely board any ship or vessel. Its airlock was infinitely adjustable, and built to override a victim's security systems. Upon linking to the station's power and computer feeds, _Shadow Wing_ uploaded a very intelligent virus into the system, which spread rapidly and shut down every security protocol that it came into contact with. Alex was silently grateful that these people had never acquired an Orion ship for themselves; otherwise they might have been able to develop a defence.

The three marine teams swarmed out of the airlock and quickly stunned the guards. Miles bound the peoples' hands with plastic strap cuffs and disarmed them, so that even if the stun wore off quicker than expected they wouldn't be causing any trouble.

"Let's move out," instructed Tyler. "Radio silence until you've taken the objective. Go, go."

Alex stuck towards the back of her group, feeling a little awkward. Tyler, Sanchez, and Rhode worked together fluidly, advancing, covering each other, communicating essential information with a few hand gestures. Already, she could see that she was a weak link in their chain. She made more noise than they did, she couldn't take mental snapshots of an area and identify any dangers the way the marines could, and could not make any sense of their sign language – no one had thought to teach it to her.

She reminded herself that there was no reason to feel inferior. She could take care of herself in a fight, always had before; and if things got really badly out of hand she could call on Kana. She'd been from one end of the galaxy to the other, and she had yet to encounter a foe that Kana couldn't flatten with a gesture. She would be fine.

It was just…their professionalism made her feel a little inferior, as she told Kana.

"_Cry baby,"_ she said compassionately.

They swept the docking level; stunning and binding two more alien technicians. They were remarkably simian looking, very much like a great ape, just a little taller than average, a lot thinner, and they had pale yellow hair. Their eyes were large, like snooker balls, but their ears were nothing more than little crevices in the sides of their skulls. Opposable thumbs, of course. They were all male, as far as Alex could tell, and all dressed in identical orange uniforms.

She had met a lot of aliens in her travels. Some had been so beautiful that the sight of them had made her weep; others had been hideous beyond her mind's ability to cope, and only Kana's help had saved her from madness. These people weren't either. They were just…kind of dull, really. They were monkeys in boiler suits, and not even cute monkeys at that; she was disappointed.

"_I know these people,"_ said Kana. _"They're called the Vyar."_

"_Anything else?"_

"_Pretty routine stuff. Warlike people, hungry for expansion and resources, ruled over by a heartless tyrant called the Pavron. They discovered warp travel a century ago, moved out into space, conquered their neighbours, and generally did unpleasant things to them."_

"_Your kind of people,"_ observed Alex dryly.

Kana snorted. _"Hardly. They're brainless thugs, with no finesse."_

"_They nicked the _Daedalus_."_

"_Point. Yes, that is a bit of a change of tactics for them. Probably got a new Pavron on their throne."_

The politics of an alien culture didn't matter much to Alex, although she was glad to have a name for these aliens. If Kana knew these people, even if her information was a little out of date, she felt more confident; some of the mystery was gone.

They descended through the maintenance decks, finding nothing but a few technicians that were already drunk or sleeping, and hardly required the stun shots that the marines gave them.

Below the maintenance levels was the prison itself; a hollow cylinder of cells that descended dozens of floors into the depths of the space station. A tower rose through the middle of the prison, providing accommodation for the guards and a monitoring station from where they could keep an eye on the prisoners. It was the marines' target, and with Alex following in their wake, they infiltrated the building.

It was at this point that their luck ran out. The guard tower was heavily defended, as was to be expected, and the marines had been prepared for it. What they hadn't expected was to find the tower's security system active; it was on a different network to the station's main systems, and hadn't been infected with _Shadow Wing_'s virus. Alarms began to blare as soon as the marines entered the tower.

"Cover!" Shouted Tyler.

Vyar guards charged into the corridor, ready to face the escaped prisoners they expected to find. They were rather less prepared for the hail of pulse fire that greeted them, the marines firing precision bursts into each man and putting him down. A second wave was neutralised as easily as the first, and the marines pressed forward. Automated security systems attempted to repulse them, but were dealt with via strategic use of hand grenades and concentrated rifle fire. There wasn't an artificial intelligence yet devised that could impede the progress of the Federation MACOs.

They reached the control room and took up positions outside the door. Tyler gestured to Rhodes, who pulled a stun grenade from his belt and bowled it through the door. A bright white flash and loud bang gave away the grenade's detonation, and the marines rushed into the room, capitalising on the disruption caused by the blast.

There was none. The defenders had sheltered from the blast, and now poked out from behind the consoles that had protected them, firing at the marines. Tyler was hit in the chest, and only his armour saved his life. He was knocked to the floor, in great pain. Rhodes and Sanchez stood over their leader, laying down covering fire while Alex dragged him behind the safety of a console. She looked at his chest wound. The armour was burnt completely away where he had been hit, and he was bleeding, but it wasn't bad. She gave him a painkiller from his medical pouch, and slapped an antiseptic patch over the wound.

"That's all I can do here."

"Good enough," Tyler grunted. He had dropped his rifle when he'd fallen, and no one had picked it up for him. He drew his pistol and leant out, taking a shot at one of the Vyar. His aim was good and the man was struck in the shoulder, instantly falling limp.

"Suppress those bastards," Tyler shouted. Alex and the two marines fired a spray of pulse bullets at the Vyar, making them duck down. Rhodes went to throw a grenade, but Tyler stopped him; at these close quarters, the defenders might be able to throw it back in time.

Alex passed her rifle to Tyler and whispered, "Keep them suppressed. I'll flank 'em."

"No. That's my job."

"You're wounded, and I can't use that rifle."

She moved before he could argue any more, a phase pistol in each hand. She kept low, circling around to where the Vyar were, grateful that the consoles were laid out in a horseshoe shape and that she would have cover the whole way. She had counted five people shooting at them before. She would have to take them quickly, before any could react to her presence, or she would be killed.

The marines were hammering phased energy into the consoles the Vyar were ducked behind. Sparks flew frighteningly, keeping the Vyar down.

Alex had them in her sights. She fired a rapid spray from each of her pistols. Four Vyar dropped straight away, but the fifth reacted in time and threw himself out of her line of fire. He rolled back and fired a single shot from his rifle. It struck Alex in the shoulder and lifted her off her feet, throwing her into the large glass windows of the monitoring centre.

Glass that wasn't reinforced.

It shattered immediately, and Alex found herself falling. The sheer walls of the tower flashed past her as she plummeted into darkness.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine 

Tyler fired six shots into the alien gunman, putting him down, but it was already too late. He was numb to his core. He hadn't particularly liked Nain, but he had felt a certain grudging respect for her. She was clever, she fought well, and she was as brave as any of his people.

He would have to tell Captain Drake what had happened to her. He didn't relish that duty. As a soldier, he had had to do it before, tell friends and family of men under his command that their loved ones weren't coming back. He had never enjoyed it. And somehow, he never seemed to find the right words. Good words, yes, but never the _right_ ones; the ones that would explain just what had happened, why that person had lost their life, and what it had achieved.

This time, it would be even harder, because what had Alex died for? She had been the victim of a lucky shot. How did you phrase that to make it sound like a worthwhile death?

He put it out of his mind for now. Focus on the job at hand, worry about the consequences when the mission is complete. "Rhodes, secure this area. Sanchez, access their computers, find _Daedalus_' crew."

The soldiers carried out his instructions without the need for words. While Sanchez was querying the computer, Lieutenant Miles contacted him. "Major, this is Miles. We've secured the operations centre. All resistance neutralised. We're using the life support system to flood the rest of the station with anesthesine gas, but we can't access the prison level ventilation systems; they're on a different circuit."

"Acknowledged, Lieutenant. We have control of the prison. Standby." He changed his communicator to a different frequency. "Tyler to Sergeant Harrison."

"Harrison here, sir."

"Status?"

"They tried to send a distress call a few minutes ago, sir. We jammed it successfully. The fighters detected our presence, but we were able to disable them. The pilots bailed. We have them in our custody."

"Very good. Inform Captain Drake of the situation. Request he proceed to our location ASAP."

"Aye, sir."

It would be hours before the _Endeavour_ and the rest of the fleet arrived. Time enough for him to locate and release the _Daedalus_ crew, and to work out what he was going to say to Drake.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain William Drake was enraged, and pacing his quarters wasn't helping him to calm down. Everywhere he looked, he saw little signs of her past presence here – the glass she had been drinking from before she had left, one of her cloaks slung over his chair, pictures of the two of them on various ships and planets – and that just added fuel to the fire.

How could she be so massively stupid and reckless? Even by her appallingly low standards of thinking, this latest action was idiotic.

He left his quarters, electing to pace the ship instead. The corridors were emptier than they had been in hours; by now most of the repair work had been completed, a little motivational encouragement from the captain convincing the crew to work a whole lot faster. With his ship at ninety-five percent operational status, Drake was sorely tempted to take _Patton_ and _Grant_ and warp immediately to Alex's location. Common sense, fortunately, overruled his impulsive desire to support his friend. The aliens had shown themselves to be fearsome adversaries; until _Icarus_ was ready for action it was foolhardy to make a move.

If she were in his shoes, she would probably make it anyway. Damned idiot.

Most of _Endeavour_'s engineers were now aboard the _Icarus_, rushing along her repairs. They would be ready to go in six hours, the chief had promised, and Drake was holding him to that number. It was far shorter than his original estimate, but still a very long time.

Worry crept in with his anger. Six hours in enemy territory? He tried to reassure himself that she was with professional Federation Marines, the best that Admiral Rose had; and Alex was no stranger to danger; but he couldn't make himself believe that she would be all right. The odds were stacked sorely against it.

Damned idiot.

His rage was cooling; he had walked the length of the ship and then some, pacing down corridors, using ladders to move between decks instead of taking the turbolifts to wear himself out faster. He was now on deck five of the primary hull, officer's accommodation. Without needing to look, he knew where his subconscious mind had led him, and a glance at the nearest door confirmed it: NAIN, LIEUTENANT, A.

He opened her door and went inside. Her cabin was only slightly smaller than the captain's, and came fitted with the standard issue bed, desk and work chair. Most of the rest of her space was filled with copious amounts of clutter: discarded clothes, papers, memory sticks, empty bottles and crushed beer cans. It epitomised Alex's character perfectly, and he now understood why she hadn't invited him to her room since coming aboard.

He was a little confused by the swords, the mace, and other weapons of pointy death that she had hung on the wall next to her bed. Alex wasn't much of a fighter. She was a sharp shot with phase pistols, but she didn't like knives – she had always said that being stabbed was one way she particularly didn't want to die. So why the swords? They hinted at a side of her that he hadn't known about, and didn't want to. The cheery, adventurous, hard-drinking Alex was the only one he wanted to know.

And he wanted her back, safe and sound, aboard the _Endeavour_.

He helped himself to a beer from Alex's small fridge. It was strong European lager, not the watered down Starfleet ale served aboard ship. He pulled the ring and took a pull of the beer.

Alex would be furious when she found one of her cans missing. That wouldn't quite make them even, but it was a start.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten 

Kana's feet touched down on the hard metal deck. She turned and looked up, tilting her head back further and further to take in as much of the guard tower as she could. It stretched twenty floors above over, its top invisible to human eyes, being lost in the thick shadows that clung to the prison. Quite a fall. She congratulated herself on stepping in as quickly as she had; Alex had been close to scaring herself to death on the way down.

Her host's mind had been so utterly exhausted by the trauma of her plunge that she was now unconscious. Kana was in sole control of their body, entirely free and unsupervised. She relished the moment, knowing that it wouldn't last for long, although she was just a little unhappy that Alex wasn't around. The tower looked phallic to her, and she had any number of tasteless penis jokes that she wanted to share with her counterpart.

Blood dribbled from her shoulder wound. Kana surveyed the injury and tutted. The skin and muscle knitted rapidly, influenced by her will, and within a few seconds the wound was healed. She wiped away a little of the blood, and then slapped a medical patch over the fresh pink skin. There was no need to, but it was easier to pretend than to explain to Tyler and everyone else how her wound had magically disappeared.

Explaining how she had survived a fatal fall…she would think of something.

There were hundreds of people locked up in this prison. She could sense them, their despair and fear and frustration a chorus in her mind that she largely ignored, greatly disinterested in other peoples' misery. These prisoners of the Vyar mostly belonged to other races, but she could sense some Vyar amongst them. People who had objected to the Pavron's rule – always a dangerous hobby when you were living in a dictatorship. That they were still alive confirmed her earlier impressions that a new man with new ideas was in charge of the Vyar these days.

Captain Drake would want to speak to those prisoners. They could give him some valuable insight into his new enemy.

Not that Kana particularly cared about such things. The Federation's concerns were its own, and of little interest to her. She ignored the Vyar prisoners and went in search of a ladder or lift that would let her get back up to where the marines were. Three levels from one of the bridges across to the tower, she found something more interesting.

Leaning against the bars of the cell door, she smirked at the prisoners inside. "Well, this explains a lot."

"More humans," spat the most decorated of the Klingons. Sharing a small cell with nearly a dozen other men, having to associate with humans, Vyar, and other alien scum every day in the food and recreation halls had made him cranky. "I would kill you if I could."

"Yeah? Well, you can't." Her most obnoxious grin spread across her lips. "A general, hey? That explains why that Klingon ship has been following us around."

"What are you talking about?"

Kana leant against the doorframe. "Ah, the long story. Very well. I'm an officer on the _Starship Endeavour_. Some nasty people – the Vyar – you may have heard of them – captured one of our ships and we were sent to recover it. One of your ships, a battlecruiser, has been following us around like a lovesick puppy. I guess they're here to find you. Now, who the hell are you?"

The muscular Klingon drew himself up proudly. "I am General Rotran."

"Ah. Never heard of you."

Spitefully, he said, "And I have not heard of you."

"I haven't even told you my name. But let's leave that to one side for now. I have a proposal for you."

"I'm not interested in anything you have to say," he turned away from her.

"And, again, you don't even know what I'm proposing. Here it is: I hate the Vyar, you hate the Vyar, we all hate the Vyar. Starfleet wants its ship back, you want revenge; I think we can work together."

Rotran gave her his attention again. "Go on."

"One of your ships is out there. Presumably, more are on the way. You take your ships, and you go blow up the Vyar. While you're having a fun time with the violence, we recover our starship. Everybody wins."

"What's to stop me from attacking you as well?"

"Your word of honour will do nicely," suggested Kana. "And you have mine that we won't get in the way of your vengeance."

Honour and deals meant nothing to Kana, but she knew that they mattered to Klingons. If Rotran accepted her offer she could rely on him to hold up his end of the bargain. And with the Klingons engaging the Vyar fighters, recovering the _Daedalus_ would be a simpler task for Will and his merry band of intrepid idiots.

"It is agreed."

Kana had instructed Alex to stash a small knife in her boot before leaving the _Endeavour_ – one never knew when a blade would come in handy. Now, she grinned and drew that knife. She slit the blade across her palm, and passed the knife to the general. He cut his palm as well, and they took each other's hand, mingling the blood and sealing the deal.

A deal that Kana fully intended to betray the instant it suited her purposes.

"Doesn't that give you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside?" She cooed as she licked the blood from her hand, a comment that the Klingon diligently ignored.

She spent a moment studying the cell's lock. A simple four-digit combination lock, easily broken. It was simpler to break the lock itself, and after smashing it open, she released the Klingons. There were ten of them squeezed into one cell, and from Rotran she learnt that there were dozens more cells full of Klingons spread throughout the prison. Two battlecruiser crews were held captive in this place. Steadily, cell by cell, she freed the Klingons. Anyone else would have felt intimidated to be in the presence of so many Klingon warriors, but Kana was just amused by their display of muscle. As if they could harm her.

She led General Rotran and four of his lieutenants into the tower, and up to where Tyler and his marines were holding position. They were stunned to see her, and terrified by the people she had brought with her.

"Nain?" Exclaimed Tyler. "What happened?"

"My cloak doubles as a handy parachute," she said stupidly. "Major Tyler, meet General Rotran. He and his people were enjoying the accommodations, and want to join us in repaying their hosts."

"No," Rotran growled, "we want to kill them!"

This prompted a cheer from the other Klingons; while Kana rolled her eyes and wondered why it was that most aliens had never heard of sarcasm.

Tyler took her by the arm and led her into a corner of the room. Sanchez and Rhodes kept their eyes on the Klingons, and their rifles in their hands.

The major hissed, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Being practical. We need all the help we can get if we're going to get _Daedalus_ back. I've made a very simple deal with the Klingons."

"What is that?"

"They fight the Vyar, while we get our ship back."

"Who are the Vyar?"

Kana gave him a contemptuous look. "Who do you think?"

Tyler started to wonder if Nain had landed on her head. He put a stop to such thinking pretty quickly, not out of any respect for her, but because it brought up the question of how she had survived being thrown off the tower. For someone who had been shot and had fallen to certain death, she was looking pretty feisty.

"We can't trust Klingons. They'll betray us the first chance they get."

So he _had_ learned something at marine school! Kana had been beginning to wonder.

"Completely true. But the first chance they get will be long after they've destroyed the Vyar; which will happen shortly after Hell freezes over."

"What makes you so confident?"

"Because the Vyar have the capacity to disable a starship completely, and the Klingons can barely spell starship. Brain beats brawn, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera," she waved a bored hand around in time to each 'etcetera'. Could the major really not see what was very, very obvious?

"Why do you think they'll concentrate on the Vyar?"

Apparently, he couldn't.

"Because the Vyar locked them up in very small cells, perhaps? More importantly, the Vyar shamed them by capturing them alive, not killing them in battle. Come on, Major; know your enemy."

He gave her a look, and Kana thought she knew why: her Alex act was slipping. It was difficult for her to replicate her host's mannerisms – despite appearances, they were two very different people – and even more difficult to get the voice right. Hers was slightly deeper, and burned, whereas Alex's was ever-perky.

"I'm assuming your little boys have control of the operations centre by now?"

Tyler nodded slowly. "The station is under our control."

"Oh well done. Then I need to take General Rotran for a little walk. He has ships out there, and we're going to need them. Trust me, Major. When have I ever led you astray?"

She was sure to leave before he could formulate an answer.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven 

"Captain, we are being hailed."

Kem'Tok glowered across the compact, heavily armoured bridge at the communications officer. "What?"

"A message, sir. From the alien station."

"How do they know we're here? Ragh! You told me we were outside their sensor range!"

"We are."

Kem'Tok grabbed the tactician by the front of his armour and pulled him downwards, so that they were at eye-level. "Then how can they be hailing us?" He raged.

The communications officer spoke, "They aren't. It is a wide-angle communication beam. But it is us they are calling."

The Klingon captain didn't like this. The unknown enemy, calling out into the void, demanding to speak with him? Strange. He glanced at Ragh and cursed the man for a fool. His moronic advice had got them into this situation. He should have followed his gut, and assaulted the station as soon as the Starfleeters had led him to it.

"Display communication."

Ragh thought this a very unwise course. "No! They don't know we are here."

"Then why are they sending us messages?"

"They _suspect_ that we are here. If we remain silent and do not react, they will decide that they are mistaken."

"I am through hiding from my enemies, Tactician. Display the communication. Now!"

The comm officer put the message through before Ragh could object a second time. Kem'Tok found himself looking at the shiny steel control centre of the alien station, as well as a smugly smirking human woman with red spines for hair and flame-red eyes. There was something about her manner that even the Klingon found…a little intimidating, and maybe a bit creepy as well. She stood so confrontationally, as though she was daring the whole universe to try and take her on; and the confidence in her said that the cosmos would lose the fight.

"You've found the 'receive' button at last," the woman said; her voice was as hot as her mane, and scathing with it.

"Human," spat Kem'Tok. "I should have known you were in league with these vile aliens!"

"And I should have known I would have to spend all day beating understanding into you. I am not in league with the Vyar."

"Then how is it that you know their name?"

A fair accusation, the crew felt, and they waited to hear their adversary's reply.

She rolled her eyes. "Because, unlike certain ignorant cretins, I try to know my enemies."

"Watch your tongue, or I will tear it from your skull!"

The red-eyed woman chuckled. "Never heard that one before. Oh wait, I have. I'd love to trade barbs with you all day, but I have more important things to do. You know, washing my hair, picking the dirt out of my nails…stuff like that. Besides, there's someone else here who wants to talk to you."

She stepped aside and the towering, imposing figure of General Rotran took her place. Captain Kem'Tok was astonished to see him. What was he doing in the company of that human? Had she somehow made him her prisoner? It seemed impossible, but there was something about that woman, some power in her eyes, that gave credence to the thought.

"Identify yourself, Captain," demanded the general, without preamble.

"Kem'Tok, son of Wahorn."

"You are alone?"

"Seven ships are with us, General. We stand ready to assault the alien outpost at your order."

"No such order shall be given."

Kem'Tok was taken aback. "But…General…"

"Are you deaf, Captain, or just as stupid as she claims? Now, listen. We are joining our forces with that of Starfleet."

The captain and his crew were no longer sure if the general was even talking sense. What had they done to him over there? "Sir…?"

"These vile Vyar have attacked our ships. They have declared war on the Empire! We shall strike them back!"

"We will crush them," Kem'Tok agreed. "But why ally ourselves with the Starfleeters? We should make war on them both!"

"They will fight the Vyar with us."

"They will only get in our way, General!"

Rotran glowered. "They won't be for long. They want their ship back. _Daedalus_. I want to do battle with the great Captain Matsura one day. Their purposes suit mine. Is that understood?"

Kem'Tok saluted. "General."

"Bring your ships into transporter range. Prepare to bring aboard my men. Starfleet vessels, led by Captain Drake, will be arriving soon. Any man who fires upon them, I shall personally send to Gre-Thor!"

Kem'Tok sent his acknowledgements, and then the screen went blank. At his signal, the Klingon fleet began the slow flight towards the space station, and he leant back in his chair to think. The general's behaviour was strange. He had always wanted to fight certain Starfleet captains; that was well known; but Kem'Tok didn't believe it was the reason for his current actions.

That red-eyed human! She was the key. Some manner of witch, perhaps? Whatever, he was convinced that she had some sinister hold over the general.

Kem'Tok smiled. Anyone with such power would make a worthy adversary. As soon as this strange alliance came to an end, he would have to lock blades with that individual.

"As you command, General."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve 

"_I'm alive?"_

"_Stellar observation, Alex. Easily one of the most brilliant ever made by any member of your species, ever."_

She sat up, blinking hard, and stared at her companion. Kana was the physical one of the two of them at the moment, and Alex was grateful for it; she felt as weak as a newborn kitten. _"What happened? I remember…falling…"_

"_I took over."_

"_And?"_

"_And a twenty story plunge is slightly less fatal to me than it is to you. What with the whole immortality thing and all."_

"_Thanks,"_ said Alex numbly. _"Guess I owe you one."_

Kana smiled her most affectionate smile. _"You'll find it a debt hard to repay. What with the whole immortality thing…"_

Alex wanted to hug her other self; but, of course, that was one of the things that she could never do; not hug her and have her feel it, anyway. That didn't stop her from wrapping her ethereal arms around Kana. She could go through the motions, if nothing else. It was the thought that counted.

"_Okay,"_ laughed Kana, extracting herself, _"a little too touchy-feely for my taste. Not that I don't appreciate it."_

Alex straightened herself up, composing herself. _"Right. What's happened while I've been out?"_

Kana quickly filled Alex in on the deal she had struck with the Klingons, and was pleased when her host didn't gape or demand to know if she was sane. Alex nodded sagely and said, _"Good plan. If a little risky."_

"_I have Rotran's word of honour. Nothing means more to a Klingon."_

"_That wasn't what I meant. Recapturing _Daedalus_ will be risky."_

"_Nothing we can't handle."_

Alex was slightly less confident. _"We still haven't seen whatever weapon the Vyar used to capture the _Daedalus_, and we haven't fought anything bigger than Vyar fighters."_

Kana waved away such concerns. _"I have total confidence in you, Alex."_

"_I'm glad you do. Wait…does that mean you're leaving it to me to come up with that part of the plan?"_

"_What? You expected me to do it all for you? When did I become a charity?"_

"_Okay, I'm feeling a little better now. I'll have control back, Kana."_

"_Sure you can handle it?"_

Alex considered the matter very carefully. Her pride made her want to instantly say that yes, of course she could, but her head was swimming. How that could be happening when she didn't actually _have_ a head at the moment was a mystery. If she were physical, she would probably be emptying her stomach right now. _"No. Okay, you keep the body for now. Just go get Susan and do exactly as I tell you."_

"_Why?"_

"_Because there's a chocolate bar in it for you."_

"_White?"_

"_Of course."_

Kana grinned. _"Deal!"_

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General Rotran was in the communication suite, coordinating squad operations, when he was interrupted. Interruptions did not please him. He had to review the officers and men aboard all of the Klingon ships, judge who was worthy of their positions, and replace those who weren't with his own men; and he still had to select his flagship. There was plenty of work to be done, and not much time in which to do it. Long-range sensors had already detected Starfleet ships on approach. He would be fully organised by the time they arrived. To be seen to be unprepared by the Starfleeters would be a grave dishonour.

It was the spiky-haired human woman – whose name he hadn't bothered to learn – and with her a very small human; a child, he surmised. Even for a child, the blond girl looked pathetically weak. A runt of a Klingon kid could squash her.

"What do you want?"

"A civilised word," replied the red-eyed woman. Why was it that when she spoke his ears burned, as though she spoke fire not words?

"Be gone."

The spiky woman smiled. "This won't take a moment. I just wanted to remind you of our deal."

He slammed his fists against the Vyar console and turned on her, his expression very angry and very dangerous. He had made an honourable agreement with her, and now she was questioning his word? There were few greater insults. "Do you take me for a fool, woman?"

"No. But I wanted to give you some idea of what'll happen if you break our deal. Susan, show the nice general your little trick."

The child nodded obediently, like a good little drone. The next thing Rotran knew, long, thick snakes of flame roared into life from behind her. They stretched out along the floor and ceiling, twisting and turning over each other, darting down the walls and circling around Rotran, like predators. He felt the heat baking his skin, boiling the air around him, and in his lungs. Strangely, there was no smoke, but he didn't notice that at the time.

"What?" He struggled to control his fear. "Wh…what is this? What is happening?"

The red-eyed woman made a slashing motion. The girl nodded, and a moment later the flames disappeared, except for the ones that leapt and crackled in the woman's horrible eyes. She didn't give the general a moment to recover from his shock. "Just so you know, she can do anywhere, any time. The first sign of betrayal and my little friend will turn your ships into flying ovens."

"How did she do that? How can she have such power?"

"That's something for you to think about. And something else to consider: was that the full extent of her power that you just saw, or just a taste?"

Out in the corridor, out of the general's earshot, Susan asked, "Why did you want me to scare him?"

"Fear is a powerful motivator. He'll fight harder for us if he fears us."

Susan thought about this for a little while. She decided, "That's mean."

"I'm not the 'Dark Soul' for no reason."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen 

Captain Drake was astonished when _Endeavour_ came out of warp to find eight Klingon ships waiting for it; and even more astonished when the Klingons didn't immediately blow them from the stars.

"Red alert, all hands to battle stations; Cartwright, plot an escape vector."

"Escape course charted, sir," he said, as the alarm blared and security and medical personnel arrived on the bridge, prepared for an emergency.

Sturnn was listening to an incoming transmission on his earpiece. "Captain, we're receiving a signal from the station."

In the alarm of the Klingons' presence, the captain hadn't even noticed the immense space station – almost the size of one of the Federation's monolithic starbases. That was where Alex had gone. Had the Klingons taken it? Had they captured her? Or killed her? He forced himself to be calm.

"On screen."

"Hi Will!"

Drake was on his feet immediately, staring at her with undisguised astonishment. "Alex? What the merry hell is going on?"

Kana tried to smile sweetly, but it wasn't really in her nature to do so, and consequently the expression came out somewhat twisted. "It's an interesting story. For now, suffice it to say that we have control of this installation, we've freed the _Daedalus_ crew, and these nice Klingons have agreed to help us get our ship back."

"Understood," said Drake, very slowly. "We'll dock momentarily. Be ready to come aboard."

"Of course."

He gestured to Sturnn, and a new comm channel was opened, this one to the Starfleet force. "All ships: go to yellow alert and maintain readiness. _Endeavour_ out. Cartwright, docking course; Mr Hill, full thrusters." He pressed a button on his armrest. "Inogashira, I want you and a team of your best men at the number one airlock, right now."

"Aye, Captain."

The _Endeavour_ nuzzled into the station's docking port. While the airlock's umbilical connection was being secured, the _Shadow Wing_ returned to the shuttle bay, piloted aboard by the marines. Drake received a report of this over the comm; Tholiar had the chair, he was waiting by the main airlock door. The station-side airlock had already opened and people were crossing the umbilical. There was no window in the ship's airlock, so Drake couldn't tell if there were Klingons in the party or not. He glanced at his security contingent, and felt reassured: the ship's best close-combat specialists were with him. Security Chief Miho Inogashira, a petite and deceptively frail Japanese woman, stood at his shoulder, her hand resting lightly on her holstered phase pistol.

A green light came on above the airlock, and the door slid slowly open. Kana stepped onto the ship, followed by two human men. Drake gestured for the security officers to relax, and stepped forward to greet them.

"Major, Hiro; glad to see you both. Alex, tell me what's going on here, and make it spectacularly good!"

Neither Nain had ever heard Drake so honestly angry and Kana was brought up short. Why was she intimidated? There was absolutely nothing that Drake could do that could harm her, and yet she still felt a prickle of fear. She scratched the back of her head and mumbled, "Yeah…um…" She glanced over her shoulder and smiled at Alex. _"Over to you."_

Alex suddenly found herself thrust to the fore, facing her irate captain. _"Oh that's real mature, Kana!"_

"I'm waiting, Alex."

She twitched on her feet and said nervously, "I've negotiated a temporary alliance with the Klingons, Captain."

"I can see that. Where did these Klingons come from?"

"There were a large contingent of Klingon prisoners on the station. The ships have been following us pretty much since we left Federation space, always staying just on the edge of sensor range. Brok and I detected them ages ago."

"And you forgot to mention this?"

"Erm…"

Why had she said that? Now she had got Brok in trouble as well, and she hadn't helped herself any; she'd just made herself look even more irresponsible. She blamed that slip on not having quite recovered from her fall. She still felt a little giddy on her feet. Why had Kana thrust her into this situation?

"And I suppose you're the one who told my tactical officer not to mention this to me, either."

"I didn't want you to over react."

Drake folded his arms sternly. "How long have you been planning this?"

_Think fast_, Alex told herself.

"A while. We need help if we're going to get the _Daedalus_ back, and no one does fighting like the Klingons. I've convinced them that the Vyar are the biggest threat right now. They'll provide us with cover while we get our ship back."

His temper was cooling fast – he just couldn't stay mad with Alex. But how easily she glossed over the problem of _Daedalus_' recovery. Or did she have a plan? That cocky gleam in her deep red eyes, he had seen it before. "Any thoughts about how we achieve that?"

"As a matter of fact…"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captains Drake and Matsura reclined in the captain's cabin, sipping from glasses of double malt Scotch whisky, not saying much in particular; the _Daedalus_ captain was still enjoying being in the old comfortable surroundings of a Starfleet ship, and Drake was giving him his time.

He hadn't seen Matsura in years. Not since the captain had been awarded command of the _U.S.S. Daedalus_, the prototype of the Daedalus-class of starship, and the Federation's first warp seven point five capable vessel. It had been a proud moment for Matsura, and for his friend. He remembered wishing the captain all the best. He hadn't felt a hint of jealousy. At the time, he had command of _Challenger_, that old NX-class saucer, and he was happy enough with her. Alex had been that ship's helmsman, and that had made _Challenger_ the best command in Starfleet as far as Drake was concerned.

Matsura had aged horribly since then. Drake knew that he had grown older – he wasn't so old that his hair had greyed, but he could feel it took more of an effort to keep in shape, his eyes and his reflexes weren't quite what they had been – but it wasn't so noticeable. Matsura had been so boyish, very much younger than his years. Now, he had a decade or so on his birth certificate.

Losing your ship could be traumatic, Drake reasoned. Being imprisoned with Klingons probably didn't do wonders for a man's complexion, either. Matsura would be better once he had his ship back, and they had put these aliens – Vyar, Alex called them – far behind them.

A few weeks of R-and-R on Risa wouldn't hurt matters, either.

Hiro Matsura took a sip of the whisky and felt it burn pleasantly down his throat. It had been far too long since he had enjoyed a good glass of Scotch. His friend had always had good taste in whiskies. They had bonded over a bottle, not too dissimilar to this one, the very first day they had met. He smiled at the memory. It felt wonderful to smile again. He was in no hurry to stop.

"I like to see the Dynamic Duo is still together."

Drake matched his friend's smile. "Can't keep us apart."

"You two aren't…?"

"Just friends. Why does everyone always assume there's something going on between us?"

"If you really can't see it, you're probably right and you're not in love. Any chance of a top up?"

Drake reached for the bottle. "I think I can handle that. But supplies are limited, Captain. Decent Scotch like this you can't find lying around any old outpost; you have to be in the core systems to get a bottle for anything like a reasonable price."

"Tell me about it. I saw a tempting '60 – wine, that is – back on Starbase One the last time we were in port. Nine months back. I had a date that evening; I needed a nice wine."

"Was that Dominique?"

"No. Isabella."

"Ah," Drake nodded. "I remember you writing about her. She seemed…interesting."

"Interesting is one way to put it," Laughed Matsura. "Anyway, I was all set to buy it, until I saw the price tag."

"Out of your price bracket, huh?"

"Oh, I could have afforded it. If I'd wanted to live on nothing but ship-issue slops for a month!"

They laughed, good loud and happy laughter, and it seemed to Drake that his friend was really recovering. But then he turned abruptly very serious, and something dark hovered in his eyes.

"I want her back, Will."

Drake was left a way behind. "Who? Isabella?"

"No, not Isabella. The _Daedalus_."

Of course, he should have realised. A captain's first marriage was always to his ship. Those who weren't deeply attached to their vessels made bad captains. He adored the _Endeavour_, and Matsura had similar feelings for the _Daedalus_. The separation was intolerable for him; that his beloved ship was in enemy hands, even worse.

"How did the Vyar capture her in the first place?"

Matsura tried to sound nonchalant as he explained, but Drake could hear the very real indignation creep into his voice. "They came at us out of the black, six ships: four corvettes and a pair of cruisers. They wouldn't answer hails, and they were on direct approach, so I ordered battle stations. Well, as soon as our shields went up they attacked. The corvettes came in fast and strafed us. We returned fire and damaged a couple of them, but they were just a distraction. The cruisers lined up, one either side of us, and fired a sort of…net at us. It passed straight through the shields and anchored to the hull. I don't know how, but it sapped off our power, shut down our systems. As soon as the nets hit, we were floating dead in space. They just took us in a tractor beam and hauled us off. They didn't even bother to board until we were at their shipyard; they knew we couldn't restore our systems. Bastards."

"Don't worry about it," Drake assured him. "We have a plan. It'll work."

The _Daedalus_' captain eyed his friend dubiously. "A plan? That crazy idea Alex came up with?"

"That would be it."

"We're calling that a plan now?"

"It's better than anything else we've got."

Matsura shook his head. "It's nuts."

"Trademark Alex. She'll get it to work. She always does."

Hiro didn't know Alex Nain as well as Will Drake did, or even as well as Drake's other close friend, Captain Nwabudike Lal. But he had heard plenty of stories about her, from those two captains and from other sources. Mad schemes were her speciality; impossible was a word whose definition she didn't know. All well and good, but how much had those stories been exaggerated in the re-telling?

"Klingons and humans fighting together? Stranger things…haven't happened."

"She says they can be trusted."

Matsura swirled his drink and watched it go round. "Do you believe her?"

Drake had to be honest. "No. Klingons are dangerous, ruthless, and I wouldn't trust them within a light year of my ship if I had a choice. But I don't. And Alex is right that we need the help."

"Desperation. Arising from necessity."

The _Endeavour_'s captain raised his glass. "To necessity."

"Necessity," agreed Matsura, clicking his glass against Drake's. "I still don't like it."

"I'm not in love with it, either. But I think it's our best shot at getting _Daedalus_ back."

"And what do we do once we've recovered her?"

"Run like hell for Federation space. We'll leave the Klingons and the Vyar to duke it out. If the Klingons beat the Vyar, and destroy their base, they'll have reduced the threat in this region. If the Vyar win, the Klingons will have lost several ships, as well as one of their top generals."

Matsura now understood why Drake had gone alone with Alex's alliance. He had seen potential in it, a potential to turn things to their advantage. "Either way, we win."

"Exactly."

This time, when Drake offered a toast his friend raised his glass with enthusiasm. Some good might yet come out of this incident.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen 

"You shouldn't be leading this," said Miho Inogashira, squeezing into a recess in the corridor while a pair of marines passed by, carrying a crate of grenades between them. Were those supplies being loaded or offloaded? They were high-explosive grenades, she saw. She would never issue such weapons to any of her security officers. Not when they would be fighting in close quarters, and aboard a Federation starship.

Alex had her head in a ceiling circuit trunk, tinkering with some piece of Orion technology that Inogashira couldn't pronounce. Her voice came back muffled. "I'm the only one who can fly the _Wing_."

"That's only because you haven't told anyone else how to read the controls."

"What are you suggesting? That I tell some Starfleet helmsmen how to work my boat? Uh-uh, that's not happening. I don't even trust Lance with her."

Lance Riker, the former freighter captain who had joined the crew at the same time as Susan and her carer, Miranda. Alex trusted his skills more than she did any of the Academy trained pilots aboard, but unfortunately Riker had been left behind on VX-41 to make room for the marines. Also, so that he could spend some quality time with Miranda – something they both deserved.

"Why not?" Miho insisted.

"Well, for one thing they'll mess up my seat. It took me months to get it right, you know. And if everyone knew how to fly the _Wing_ it'd get sent on all sorts of stupid errands. No."

Inogashira didn't understand why Alex was so protective of her craft. She didn't trust Starfleet pilots to handle her right – she had said that before – but in Inogashira's opinion no amount of man handling could do the _Shadow Wing_ any harm; the ship was already a mess. It could clip an asteroid and probably no one would notice.

She tried another approach. "You're wounded."

"Just a scratch."

"Alex, you got shot with a phase pistol. And you haven't let the doctor take a look at it yet."

The helmsman finished her work, and her smiling, satisfied head appeared from the trunk, smudged with dirt. She sealed up the panel and jumped down from the stepladder. While she set about cleaning herself up, Inogashira realised that she was intentionally avoiding her question.

"Your shoulder," she prompted. "The thing you've got a patch on."

Alex glanced at the bloody material. Kana had allowed the wound to weep a little, to make the dressing look more authentic, more necessary. "Yeah. Well, would you voluntarily go to the sickbay? Be honest."

"Good point," Miho allowed.

The two women laughed a little, but without much enthusiasm. The security chief was still concerned for her shipmate, and Alex was wishing that Inogashira hadn't reminded her about her injury – she had been trying to ignore it. Kana had very kindly repaired the damage, but she had forgotten to do anything about the pain and it was getting irritating.

Inogashira tried again. "Be sensible, Alex. You can show Hill how to operate your ship. He's a top pilot. He can get the team aboard the _Daedalus_."

"Sure. He wouldn't have a problem if he only has to fly in a straight line. Even the autopilot can handle that – just about. But if someone fires on the _Wing_ and he has to take evasive action… He doesn't know her. Doesn't know how she handles, the distribution of her mass, rates of acceleration, manoeuvrability, etcetera. That sort of stuff takes years of familiarity to learn, he can't pick it up in an afternoon over tea and biscuits. Nah, Miho. I'm the only one who can fly this mission. End of discussion."

"All right, all right. You convince me. Just be very careful, okay? It would break Susan's heart if anything happened to you."

"_Aw. Wouldn't that be a crying shame?"_

Alex smiled. Whether it was Miho or Kana that she was smiling at, she wasn't a hundred percent sure. "I'll be careful. I'm _always_ careful."

"No you're not. You're always reckless and rash."

"See, Miho, this is why it's a mistake to ship out with an old friend. They always think they know you better than you do, and they come up with all these little embarrassing stories."

"What kind of stories?" Perked up Inogashira.

Drake opened his mouth, but Alex cut him off quickly, "Nothing interesting. What are you doing down here, Will?"

"We're approaching the Vyar shipyard. Twenty minutes out. I hope you're ready to go?"

"I think the marines are about finished loading their stuff aboard. Major Tyler and his squad are already cluttering up my ship, so I'd say we're ready. You? Ready for this?"

Drake shrugged. "All things considered, I'd rather be back on SB2." There was more that he would have said, but not in the presence of Lieutenant Inogashira. Although the depth of his relationship with Alex Nain was well known, he was still disinclined to be totally open with her in front of other shipmates.

Aware of this, Alex said, "Miho, can you do a quick check for me? Make sure all the marine gear is stowed properly, and that Susan isn't hiding anywhere aboard this ship. Will, can you have a look at the targeting array for me? I haven't been able to get the guns to fire straight since you used them."

In the cockpit, Drake asked, "Are you sure no one else can do this?"

"There's a certain familiarity about this. Oh wait, Miho just asked me the exact same things. No, Will, no one else."

"I thought so. Alex, I'm not worried about you. God knows you're immortal. But if we're to go into battle, I'd like to have my best pilot at the helm."

Alex was apologetic. "Can't be in two places at once, Will. If I don't fly the _Wing_, we don't get the _Daedalus_ back; it's as simple as that. Hill's not a bad pilot. Under no circumstances are you to repeat that – everyone knows I think Starfleet people can't fly."

Drake laughed. "Duly noted."

She finished tinkering with the navigation system, turned to her friend, and abruptly swept him up in a hug. Drake was as bemused as he was touched. Alex wasn't usually one for expressing herself physically. That she did now felt odd and somehow worrying. "Take care, hey, Will. Don't do anything heroic."

"Are you…worried, Alex?"

"Nah. Course not. I just need someone to give me a lift home, is all."

He grinned. "Of course. I'd better get back to the bridge. You take care, too, Alex. I want someone to _give_ a lift home to."

"Sounds fair to me."

Drake returned to the bridge, taking Inogashira with him, which Alex was grateful for. They were both good friends, but she didn't want them around right now. All their questions, all their worry; she could brush it away just fine, smile and nod and say that, yeah, everything was cool, but deep down there was cold, hard fear. She was lying with every breath. She was used to lying – one couldn't live with a secret like hers and not lie constantly – but somehow this felt different. Concealing Kana, all the lies that entailed, she could do and never feel guilty about it in the slightest. Lying to her friends about this, she didn't feel guilty about either, but somehow weakened, worn out.

She didn't have much confidence in her plan, despite what she had said to everyone – Drake, Inogashira, Tyler and his marines, Kana. It wouldn't work, and if it did it had no right to. This was just as much a suicide mission as the ones those Japanese pilots had gone on centuries ago, climbing into their flimsy fighters and diving straight at U.S. ships.

Well, in twenty minutes she would be strapping into her fragile spaceship and diving it at a Federation starship, held in an enemy shipyard that was protected by fighters, corvettes – and possibly bigger ships by now – not to mention the few dozen cannons the station itself packed. Suicidal.

She felt…unsure. It was maddening. If she had been confident, unconfident, terrified, excited, aroused, whatever, she would have known how to handle it. This uncertainty was alien to her. So was the guilt. Guilt at the creeping certainty that she was about to get herself and everyone aboard the _Shadow Wing_ killed.

These feelings were pent up inside of her. She could do with releasing them, but how? She couldn't talk to Will or Miho about it. She had her pride. Kana wouldn't listen, and if she did she sure as hell wouldn't understand. Her counterpart would probably just laugh and tell her she was a cry baby.

Maybe she was, at that.

She felt the _Endeavour_ come out of warp. After so many years aboard starships, she could tell from the vibration of the deck plates whether a ship was moving at relativistic or FTL speed; she had no need to check instruments.

"_Shadow Wing_," called Tholiar over the comm, "we have reached the Vyar shipyard. They have increased their defences. Prepare for launch."

"Attention passengers, this is your pilot speaking. We will be departing in just a moment. Please ensure that you are strapped in, that your tray tables are in their upright and locked positions. Our destination today is the _Starship Daedalus_, and probably one hell of a firefight. ETA, bugger knows, but as fast as I can. I remind you that this is a no smoking flight. Thank you."

A new tremor passed through the ship, and Alex recognised that one as well: photonic torpedoes being discharged. That was her cue to launch, and she took it, no more time for doubting. Flicking a switch on her console, she signalled the shuttlebay flight controller that she was ready to go. The shuttlebay doors opened, the eternal night welcomed the stealth ship back into its element. Alex hoped that they had got away undetected, but there was no way of telling until someone fired on them – and by then it would probably be too late. She crossed her fingers, and brought the _Shadow Wing_ about, to fly down the length of the _Endeavour_ and then across the void to the shipyard – a barely visible grey smudge against the blackness of space.

The combined Federation-Klingon fleet had come out of warp in a single wide line, launching a volley of photonic torpedoes the instant that they exited subspace. The antimatter explosions would momentarily overload the enemy sensors, allowing the _Shadow Wing_ to launch undetected. At least, that was the theory.

It seemed to be a good theory, as far as Alex could tell. Vyar ships of all shapes and sizes were buzzing around the fleet like angry wasps, but so far none of them had shown any interest in the _Shadow Wing_, or even acknowledged that it was there. She pointed her craft in the direction of the shipyard and gave a burst from the impulse thrusters. Tyler would probably object to her flying a straight-line course to the enemy outpost, but he wasn't around to object – she had locked the cockpit so that he _couldn't_ come in and object – and she saw no reason to waste time with evasive manoeuvres when no one was even aware of them. Time was precious here. She had no idea how long the fleet would be able to stand up to the hammering the Vyar were dishing out.

Although, she pondered as she watched a quartet of Vyar corvettes explode silently, they might last just a bit longer than they had last time.

The tactical and science officers of all the Starfleet ships had spent every spare moment analysing the scans they had of the Vyar ships from their last encounter, comparing readings, devising strategies. Last time, the Vyar had been blank slates, and the Starfleet ships had been firing blind, hoping for lucky strikes. Now, the good guys knew almost as much about their enemies as the Vyar did about them.

While Brok and his cohorts aimed for specific targets, knocking out subsystems with precision phase cannon strikes, shattering the wounded Vyar craft with photonic torpedoes, the Klingons adopted a slightly different approach: they sprayed like crazy, a great rain of disruptor bolts and their own sickly green equivalent of torpedoes. It wasn't possible to carpet bomb space, but the Klingons were giving it a damned good try.

A Vyar frigate, a big grey sausage with a horseshoe-shaped engine stuck on the back, lost its hull plating, and a follow-up Klingon torpedo to its mid-section split the craft in two. Escape pods raced away before a third torpedo struck the drive section and reduced the craft to a thinly dispersed debris field.

Kana applauded. _"I love starships exploding in the morning."_

"_That's the most horrible, tortured misquote I have ever heard. I knew it was a bad idea to let you see that movie."_

"_It was great! Pointless destruction of large swathes of forest, lots of fire, explosions, shooting, and people getting killed for no reason whatsoever. What wasn't to like?"_

A fresh wing of fighters slid by the _Shadow Wing_, close enough that Alex could read the alien markings on the lead ship's fuselage. Although her ship and the fighters were both travelling very fast, space being so hideously large, it took almost a minute for them to close with and pass each other; a minute during which Alex very closely watched her instruments for any indication that the Vyar craft were going to change course, perhaps hitting her as a result. They didn't, and the flight of fighters passed silently 'above' the stealth ship. Alex allowed herself to breathe again.

"_You weren't scared, were you?"_

To Alex's intense annoyance, not only did her counterpart sound as though she hadn't been anxious in the least, she was nonchalantly playing with her yoyo. Fear? What's that? Kana seemed to be saying.

The human flicked on the rear screens to check the progress of the battle. Things were going better than she had expected. The Vyar fighters that had been such a danger before were being swatted from the sky for very little harm done to the good guys. One Klingon cruiser was on fire and one of the Phobos-class starships had a hull breach. Phobos-class starships were essentially spheres with a pair of warp nacelles tacked on the back. With the breach in its hull, this one looked a bit like a toffee apple that someone had taken a bite out of.

Up ahead, the shipyard was a giant mass of scaffolding, clutching the captured ships. They were on final approach now. Alex tapped the thrusters and nudged the stealth ship onto its new course. The craft floated towards the _Daedalus_. When they were close enough for a low-power scan, Alex performed it, and was relieved to find that the ship was intact and functional – the Vyar hadn't yet got to the point of taking it apart to see how it worked; they were probably still extracting information from the main computer.

"Captain Matsura, I need you up here."

Half a minute later, Alex heard someone tapping their knuckles against the cockpit door. She unlocked the door and Hiro Matsura came onto the cockpit; alone, fortunately; she had suspected that Tyler would take the opportunity to come and bug her.

The captain looked out the forward portholes at his starship and Alex saw him smile, relieved. She knew that Drake would react in exactly the same way if it had been the _Endeavour_ they were recovering. Good captains cared about their ships.

"I've scanned her and she's intact. All systems functioning. We just have to get aboard."

"That's my job."

"Yup. The comm station is just here, Captain. Don't worry, I won't spy on you."

Matsura hoped he could trust her about that. This wasn't a simple computer password that he was about to input, it wasn't like if Alex stole it she would just be able to read his emails and look at his secret stash of pornography. The strings of numbers that he typed into the console now were the prefix codes for the _Daedalus_; not just the command to deactivate her shields, but to activate a security lockdown, open the shuttlebay, and to forbid all computer access unless proceeded by the appropriate command code.

"Shields are down," cried Alex victoriously. "The shuttlebay door is open. Ha ha! I bet they're making a mess of themselves over there. Okay, let's get in there. Hey, Tyler, hope your boys are ready."

"We're FMACO, Nain," he replied with mock seriousness – she could hear the smile in his voice, clear across the comm. "We're always ready."

As Alex piloted her craft into the hangar bay, she finally saw a problem that she should have anticipated long ago. The _Shadow Wing_ was not a standard Starfleet craft, and the Daedalus-class hadn't been designed to carry it in its shuttlebay. The _Endeavour_ had a special rack that the engineers had set up for it to land on, but there was no such thing aboard the _Daedalus_. There was nowhere to land, unless she wanted to put down on top of the starship's shuttles, crippling them and her craft. That wasn't option.

"I should have thought of this," Alex muttered, thinking fast. She could leave the _Shadow Wing_ hovering using its antigravity thrusters, and tether it to the inside of the shuttlebay with a tractor beam to be doubly certain that it didn't go anywhere. That was simple enough. But how to get her passengers to where they needed to go? She couldn't get close enough to the deck for the marines to jump out without injuring themselves. While watching soldiers hobble around the ship might be comical, it wouldn't be good for their chances of recapturing the _Daedalus_.

"Can't you land?"

"No room."

"If we cleared the shuttles? You could push them into space with this craft's tractor beam."

"It would take too long."

This was ridiculous, she thought. To have come all this way, only to be stuck on the _Shadow Wing_ because she couldn't find a place to land. She suddenly wished that she had left Matsura and the marines back on the _Endeavour_. If it had been her alone, Kana could have teleported aboard the starship. But if she did that now she would give her secret away, and that was far more important to her than the _Daedalus_.

Teleport…the transporter! The _Shadow Wing_ had an Orion transporter device. Alex had very, very rarely used it, simply because she didn't trust the technology. Kana's teleportation magic trick she had faith in, but wires and technology and unpronounceable bits of machinery…nah. She wouldn't use it unless she absolutely had to.

Which she did now.

"Tyler, get your marines into the transporter room."

He was a good soldier; he knew how to follow orders. Unquestioningly, he rounded up his people and led them onto the transporter stage. From the cockpit, Alex accessed the transporter controls and beamed the marine squad off the ship. They materialised in a flash of green-grey light, directly beneath the _Shadow Wing_. She could have beamed them anywhere on the _Daedalus_, but there wouldn't have been any point. Matsura and his senior officers were needed to reactivate the starship, and they were still aboard the _Shadow Wing_.

The Starfleet officers were the next group to be beamed aboard the _Daedalus_. Alex set a timed command on the transporter, so that she could be beamed down with Matsura's party. She also took the precaution of setting an emergency signal, which any of them could use to beam back to the _Shadow Wing_ at any time.

"We have to be fast," Matsura announced, firmly in command now that he was back on his own ship. "There's no telling how much longer the other ships can survive. McCallum, Williams and I will retake the bridge; Jezzelis, Wickersham, the armoury is yours, Atherton, take Nain and get to the engine room."

"Marines, you have your assigned objectives. Go."

With a pair of Marine privates, whose names she hadn't got around to learning, and Chief Engineer Atherton, she made her way up to the engineering deck. Their progress was rapid and unimpeded. The lack of any enemies to fight gave Alex plenty of time to reflect on how eerie it was around here. The _Daedalus_ was identical to the _Endeavour_ in every aspect of design; even the carpet was the same. It was spookily like home, except that this ship was deserted. They walked through empty corridors, passed abandoned rooms, and Alex felt like she was walking through a ghost town. The marines and Atherton provided no comfort – they were total strangers. Kana's presence was more reassuring.

As they approached the engine room, Alex got increasingly nervous. Not about her own situation, but about the battle that she was taking no part in. She suddenly felt so guilty about flying this mission, not staying aboard the _Endeavour_ to help repel the Vyar. _That_ was where she should have been.

She glanced anxiously at her counterpart. _"Kana…do you know how the battle is going? How are our friends?"_

The dark Nain closed her eyes, as though focusing deep inside herself, or on something far away. For a moment, her face was blank, but then she opened her luminous red eyes and smiled. _"Our friends are fine, Alex."_

She took Kana at her word, but her other side's reassurance didn't stop her from worrying. How much longer would Will and the others remain 'fine'? Time was still precious.

They reached the engine room without opposition. It was all too easy, in Alex's opinion. There were still Vyar aboard this ship; the _Shadow Wing's_ sensors had confirmed that. Where were they? Maybe they had assumed that the systems chaos they were experiencing was the result of a mistake that they had made with their tinkering – that was the hope, anyway – but there still should have been Vyar technicians rushing up and down the ship, trying to put right what had gone wrong. They had seen no one.

"_This doesn't feel right."_

"_No, it doesn't."_

Atherton couldn't hear her worries, and the Marines were too professional to show fear. They took up positions either side of the engine room door, rifles in hand, ready to storm the room. The chief engineer pressed the door release control.

And a massive explosion tore apart the bulkhead, and flooded the corridor with fire.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen 

"_Alex!"_

To Kana, it all happened in horrifying slow motion. She saw the doors slide apart, and she saw the explosive the Vyar had placed. She saw it detonate, the fireball spew forth, the bulkhead contort and buckle and finally tear apart. She saw shrapnel tear through Atherton and the marines, killing them just instants before the flames scorched their bodies to the bone. She saw the wave of white-hot flame roll down the corridor, unstoppably, rushing to engulf her defenceless host.

She stepped in as quickly as she could. The shockwave and the heat of the explosion knocked Alex off her feet, and in the split second between that happening and the flames reaching her, her eyes filled with the hellish fire of her other self's power. The flames washed harmlessly over Kana.

She stood in the blackened, ruined corridor. Three tortured skeletons were her only company. For a moment she couldn't even sense Alex's presence within her, and cold hard fear gripped her heart. Had she been too slow? Had the heat, or the shock, or the fright been enough without the flames? Or had, perhaps, Alex been struck by a piece of the destroyed bulkhead?

Her panic disappeared when she finally made contact with her host. She was unconscious and very weak, but still with her. Kana had never been more relieved.

That feeling, in turn, swiftly gave way to fury. This was the _second_ time the Vyar had nearly killed her better half. The last time, she had let them get off easily, but this time she would not be so forgiving. Unimaginable power churned within her. She was reticent to use it most of the time, partly to help keep their secret, and partly because she had found it more fun to solve her problems with a bit of brains and creativity than a snap of her fingers.

Revenge could be a very creative endeavour.

She stepped into the engine room. The explosive device had been shaped, its force directed down the corridor, and the engineering compartment itself had escaped unscathed. Like all engine rooms on all Daedalus-class ships, this one was a five-level affair that sprawled over a quarter the length of the secondary hull. The warp core shot up through the centre of the chamber, normally a pulsating tube of violet light, now cold, dark, and inactive. Dozens of tall computer consoles lined the walls, and wherever there wasn't a bank of computers a piece of complicated machinery protruded from the bulkheads. The beating heart noise of the warp core, the hum of computers, and the various hissing, crashing, squeaking, groaning noises the other machines made all mixed into a hideous din that rattled throughout the cavernous room.

From their positions on the upper levels, the Vyar opened fire on her as soon as she stepped into the engine room. Energy bullets rained harmlessly around her. Kana snarled, tensed, and made a slashing motion with her right arm. A surge of red light filled the engine room, and when it faded again she was the only living thing left. The Vyar had simply vanished.

Calmly, Kana crossed to the nearest of the functioning consoles. She had no idea how to restart the _Daedalus_' engines herself, and neither did she care to find out. She pressed the intercom – one of the few systems that hadn't been affected by Matsura's prefix codes – and called, "Engine room to the bridge."

"Bridge, Matsura here. Nain, you have control of the engine room?"

"Evidently."

There was a momentary pause. "Internal sensors recorded some strange energy readings in your vicinity. Is the core intact? Where's Chief Atherton?"

"Dead."

"What happened?"

"A Vyar trap," she said tonelessly. "I'm the only survivor. I need someone down here to do Atherton's job."

"Understood, Lieutenant. Williams is on her way."

Kana flicked off the comm and settled into a chair while she waited for the navigation officer to get down here. While she waited, she thought dark thoughts, formulated cruel and brutal forms of revenge. She still hadn't worked out what she was going to do with the Vyar. They could wait in the pocket universe with her yoyo until she came up with something.

Thinking about that, she retrieved her yoyo: she didn't want the Vyar to have anything to entertain themselves with while they were in limbo.

Lieutenant Williams stepped gingerly into the engine room several minutes later. She was pale, having passed the corpses outside the door. She and Atherton had been shipmates for a long time. Kana could sense her pain. For once, she was even sympathetic. Nearly loosing Alex had made her a little more empathetic.

"What happened?"

"There was a bomb, rigged to go off when we opened the door. Can you restart the warp core?"

Williams nodded and focused on her task. "I should be able to."

While she worked, Kana hovered in the background and played with her yoyo, still thinking. Alex wouldn't want her to take revenge. Well…she would _say_ that she didn't want her to take revenge. Kana knew a little better than that. Her host had a mean streak of her own, her own evil. Unlike Kana's, Alex's was a very cold, practical, inhuman evil. Most of the time it was dormant deep inside of her. When it emerged…ouch. Even Kana found Alex in a dark mood intimidating.

If Alex ever decided to take revenge on someone, she would do it by creeping up behind them and slitting their throat. There would be no game, no art, just a dispassionate murder, and it wouldn't make her feel any better – although she wouldn't regret her actions, either.

Kana wasn't like that. Death was a release. A decent revenge should delay the victim's death for as long as possible. It should make death something that they looked forward to, would embrace when it came, and then deny them it for a long time.

She was still no closer to knowing what to do with the Vyar.

It wasn't just Alex she was taking revenge for, she decided. Atherton and the marines could have their share of it, too. She hadn't known them, hadn't cared about them, but she would happily hurt someone for them.

"How did you survive?"

"What?"

Williams had her head and upper body stuffed into the reaction chamber of the warp core, tinkering with something. She asked again, "How did you survive? The explosion, I mean."

"I was a lot further down the corridor."

"Oh. Then you didn't see…?"

"No."

Williams was silent for another minute, and then she continued, "He was a good man. John, I mean. I…I didn't know the marines, but I'm sure they were good men, too. It's so stupid! Why…"

"Are people dying?" Suggested Kana, impatience creeping into her tone. "We're in battle with the Vyar. People die in battle. They're dying right now. And they will keep dying until you get this ship functional again, and we can get out of here."

"You're not very sympathetic."

"Not in the least."

Williams pulled herself out of the warp core. For a moment, Kana thought that she was going to have an out-and-out argument with her right now, but fortunately the navigation officer was more professional than that. She pressed a button on the master warp core control console, and the antimatter reactor came back to life.

"That's it. We have main power."

The _Daedalus_ surged with renewed strength. Things moved quickly after that, following precisely the plan that Captain Matsura had laid out before they had embarked on this operation. Jezzelis and Wickersham in the armoury manually targeted the ship's phase cannons and blasted the docking clamps, umbilical cords, and airlocks that joined the starship to the Vyar station. As soon as they were floating free, helmsman McCallum fired the impulse engines, and the ship escaped into free space, manoeuvred so that it was on a course back for outpost VX-41, and leapt to warp. The other Starfleet vessels followed the _Daedalus_ into subspace. The Klingons elected to remain behind: there were still Vyar to shoot!

They had done it. The _Starship Daedalus_ was back in Federation hands. Mission accomplished.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen 

_Alex found herself floating in a dark place. It was like being EVA she decided, except for the absence of both a spacesuit and any stars. It was peaceful, so still and silent. Peaceful as the grave._

_With that thought, Alex stopped liking this place very much._

"_Hello," she called. Her voice disappeared into the darkness. There was no echo, it was just swallowed up. She shivered._

_What had happened to her? She remembered…she remembered being aboard the _Daedalus_. Making her way to the engine room. The door. The explosion. The…_explosion

_Was that it? Silent as the grave, that's what she had thought about this place. Was she actually right? Was she dead? How could she be thinking if she was dead? Unless the old religions had got it right about the whole soul thing. She couldn't pretend that this void was very heavenly, or particularly hellish for that matter. It was just a sort of limbo. Was that in the Bible anywhere? Along with the Starfleet reg manual, it was one of those books that she should really get around to looking at one day._

_A figure appeared in the darkness, standing before her on empty air. Alex realised that she was standing as well, and also that, although there was no light anywhere, she could see her own body and that of the other figure perfectly clearly._

_She wasn't sure what she was expecting – God, a god, Kana perhaps – but she didn't get it. Instead, there was a man. A perfectly ordinary man. He was about her height, pale skinned, and dressed in a boring little black suit. His hair was black and cut short and styleless. The only thing interesting about him were his eyes._

_Red eyes._

_In all her years, Alex had never encountered another human being who had red eyes. Hers were some sort of by-product of being Kana's host. Maybe the alien hadn't liked the blue eyes that she had been born with and had decided to recolour them; maybe there was a better reason._

_How did that little man come to have red eyes? Was he a host as well? Of another entity like Kana? That was impossible, wasn't it? She had said that they were all dead, wiped out in an ancient war. Maybe he was one of Kana's previous hosts. She had never mentioned having any, but that didn't rule out the possibility._

_Deciding that questioning herself about this was pointless, she asked, "Who are you?"_

_The little man didn't answer. He looked her over, very slowly, and when his inspection was finished he tutted. "Unimpressive."_

"_Who are you?" Alex didn't care what he thought of her; she just wanted an identity for this red-eyed freak, and perhaps an explanation for how he came to have those eyes._

"_I wonder why she chose you."_

_Chose me? Thought Alex. It didn't take her very long to see what the stranger meant by that comment. How many females had ever chosen her for anything? Kana, to be her host. Simple._

_How did this guy know about Kana?_

"_For the third and final time: who the hell are you?"_

_The man stuck his hands into his trouser pockets. He seemed to be enjoying not answering her, teasing her. Alex felt like slugging him. How smug would he look when she broke his jaw?_

_She noticed that she and the man weren't alone anymore. Standing at her side, right where she belonged, openly aggressive, was Kana._

"_My friend asked you a question."_

_The man turned his back on the two Nains and started to walk away. He was fading more and more with each step; disappearing back into whatever realm he had sprung from. Before he vanished completely, he called back, "You should know."_

_Alex looked to her protector for an explanation. "Kana?"_

"_I have no idea. But the next time we meet that fool, I will find out!"_

"_Great. Where are we?"_

"_I'm not really sure. Somewhere in your subconscious."_

"_Oh. I'm not dead then?"_

_Kana smiled gently at her other side. "No. That makes twice I've pulled your ass out of the fire this little adventure. Literally, this time."_

"_The explosion? What happened?"_

"_Everyone with us was killed. I managed to save us. One of Matsura's people got the warp core online, and we ran away. The Klingons stayed to duke it out with the Vyar. I expect they're dead now."_

"_Who? Which side?"_

"_Who cares?"_

_Alex shrugged, and then she yawned. She felt a weight creeping onto her shoulders, fatigue burning behind her eyes. "I'm really tired, Kana."_

"_Rest then," advised her friend. "I can take care of us."_

"_Good." She yawned again. Her eyes were drifting closed, her vision blurring. The darkness was so still and peaceful. Kana was watching her, looking out for her, like always. It was okay for her to let her guard down, to truly rest for a while. It had been so very, very long since she had done that. She had earned her sleep._

"_No binging on…chocolate," she instructed sleepily._

_Kana grinned. "No promises."_


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen 

"Thanks again, Will."

The two captains were saying their goodbyes when Kana arrived on the bridge. The _Endeavour_ had received new orders, direct from Admiral McCaffrey's office: they were to return to VX-41, pick up the scientists they had left there, and resume their interrupted nebula survey. The _Daedalus_, on the other hand, was to proceed to Starbase Two for repairs, as well as R&R for the crew.

"Any time, Hiro."

"Hopefully, next time we'll get to rescue you."

"Don't count on it," Drake grinned. "Happy travels."

"Same to you. _Daedalus_ out."

For a few seconds they were awarded a side-on view of the great silvery starship that they had worked so hard to rescue, and everyone on the bridge could feel a surge of pride that they had, against the odds, succeeded. Then the _Daedalus_' nacelles flashed, the ship disappeared into subspace, and the _Endeavour_ was once again alone in the night – the _Icarus_ and other escorts had left formation hours ago.

"Docking course, Mr Hill," commanded the captain. "It's time we say goodbye to our marine friends."

"Oh, thank God. Oops. Did I say that out loud? How careless of me."

Drake turned his chair and smiled at her. "Alex. Are you feeling better?"

"Still a bit shaky," she replied falsely. Since she had none of her host's skill at piloting a spaceship, she had needed an excuse to keep out of the helm chair this last dayr or so. Shell shock from the explosion that she had 'narrowly' survived had seemed a good one at the time, and it still seemed to be holding up.

"You'll have plenty of time to chill while we go back to scanning dust clouds."

"Oh, I find staring at big brown blobs endlessly exhilarating, Will. Orgasmic, even."

They were a lot more interesting than the void that she had left Alex snoozing in, anyway. Or the limbo that her Vyar captives were trapped in, never to be released from. A torturous, insanity-inducing, prolonged end. Could there be any crueller revenge? If, at some later date, she came up with one, she would be sure to implement it.

"You really are in shock."

Kana grinned, and so did Alex. After fourteen hours of blissful relaxation in the perfect darkness in her subconscious, she was feeling refreshed, better than she had since her last spell of shore leave. She stood next to her second self and watched her friends and shipmates, smiling, proud of them all and proud to be a part of them. They had done some great things this mission; she knew that even Kana wouldn't disagree with her.

"_Feeling better?"_

"_Much. Nothing like a long, restorative sleep, is there?"_

Until very recently – well, twenty-odd years ago – Kana would have shrugged, unable to offer a valid answer. It wasn't until she had begun her partnership with Alex that she had learnt what it was to sleep, and to dream. She couldn't imagine life without either, now. _"I suppose you'll be wanting your body back?"_

Alex shook her head. _"Nah. Keep it, for now. I think you've earned it."_

"_I have to earn my time now?"_ Said Kana jokingly.

The human Nain didn't reply. She watched the main screen, the asteroid into which VX-41 had been built slowly expanding to fill the viewer. Before long, Tyler and his marines would be gone, and Sarn and her scientists would be back aboard. She looked forward to that. She and her friend had some catching up to do. She was sure Sarn would be keen to hear all about the _Endeavour_'s encounter with the Vyar.

And she would be glad to finally see the back of Tyler.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before he left the ship, there was one last thing for Major Kenneth Tyler to take care of. He tracked Alex Nain down to the ship's shuttlebay, where she was relaxing aboard her stealth craft, indulging in a bar of creamy white chocolate. Although he didn't announce himself in any way, she knew that he was there.

"Come to say your goodbyes?"

He stood and watched the back of her head for several seconds, until it became inescapably clear that she wasn't going to turn around and look at him. Fine. He hadn't expected her to be particularly civil, anyway. He didn't need her to be. They had never been friends, and he hadn't come to try and improve their relationship now.

"Before I go, I just wanted to clear a few things up."

"Go on."

"You were shot. You fell out of the tower on the Vyar penal station. That was a twenty-story plunge, there was nothing to land on but the ground at the bottom, and yet you walked away unharmed."

She didn't reply in anyway. He went on: "Then, on the _Daedalus_, that explosion killed two of my men and Captain Matsura's chief engineer, but didn't even singe your hair. And another thing: I was monitoring internal sensors. There were Vyar in the engine room. You walked in, there was some kind of radiation surge, and then you were the only one left. Radiation that utterly atomised the Vyar, and it left you untouched."

"Heh heh. What are you implying, Major? That I'm immortal? That I'm a magician? That I'm an agent, secretly working for the Vyar? What?"

He didn't answer her directly. "And then there are all those stories about you. Van De Berg, and others. You appear where disaster strikes. Sometimes you prevent it; sometimes you seem to cause it; but every time, you walk away unscathed."

"We've been through that: I'm cursed." She popped a cube of chocolate on her tongue and savoured it as it melted away.

"And then there's this Dark Soul business. Don't try and tell me it's just a nickname."

"Okay. It's my middle name. I'm Alex Dark Soul Nain. How's that?"

The major wasn't treating this as a joke. "There's something very strange about you, Lieutenant. Beyond those red eyes of yours, although I bet that's got something to do with it. I'll find out what it is."

"Feel free to try. But you should know, Major, that if someone is keeping a secret it is usually for a good reason."

"Is that a threat, Lieutenant?"

She finally turned, and in her deep, complex red eyes there flickered something cruel and taunting. "No. You would know if I was making a threat. Goodbye, Major. If we ever meet again, it will be bad for one of us. There. In case you missed it, that was a threat."

_STAR TREK: Endeavour NCC-194_

_To be continued in 'Phobos'  
_

**Legal Notice**

The characters of all Daedalus personnel used in this story (with the exception of Chief Engineer Atherton) were originally created by Michael Jan Friedman for his novel Star Trek: Starfleet Year One, published by Pocket Books,and all credit for those characters goes to him. I use them here because Year One is a favourite Star Trek story of mine, and has been a big inspiration for Endeavour NCC-194. This story is my tribute to that novel, and to Mr Friedman's work in general.


End file.
